Flickering Stars
by FullmetalNyuu
Summary: Jolting out of her slumber, a lone girl the locals call the Courier faces down the barrel of a gun while her family frets and leaves thier long-lived home to recover what was lost.
1. Act 1

**Hey, guys and girls, anime lovers and game lovers. This is my first fic, and it is actually my own sequel to Tastychainsaws' fic, "Falling Stars", so if you haven't read it, I would recommend that you go ahead and give it a look, because many of the elements in this story would be kind of confusing to anyonne who hasn't read the original work. Oh yea, I guess I'll do this disclaimer thing. I do not own Lucky Star or Fallout, they are owned and operated by the respective authors. **

**So, let's get to it.**

**FLICKERING STARS**

**CHAPTER 1: New Beginnings**

_War. War never changes. _

_When atomic fire consumed the earth, those who survived did so in great, underground vaults. When they opened, their inhabitants set out across ruins of the old world to build new societies, establish new villages, form new tribes. _

_As decades passed, what had been the American southwest united beneath the flag of the New California Republic, dedicated to old-world values of democracy and the rule of law. As the Republic grew, so did its needs. Scouts spread east, seeking territory and wealth, in the dry and merciless expanse of the Mojave Desert. They returned with tales of a city untouched by the warheads that had scorched the rest of the world, and a great wall spanning the Colorado River. _

_The NCR mobilized its army and set it east to occupy the Hoover Dam, and restore it to working condition. But across the Colorado, another society had arisen under a different flag. A vast army of slaves, forged in the conquest of 86 tribes: Caesar's Legion. _

_Four years have passed since the Republic held the Dam - just barely - against the Legion's onslaught. The Legion did not retreat. Across the river, they gathered strength. Campfires burned, training drums beat. _

_Through it all, the New Vegas Strip has stayed open for business under the control of its mysterious overseer, Mr. House, and his army of rehabilitated Tribals and police robots. _

_From across the wastes came a lone traveler, a girl whose work with the Mojave Express saw her labeled as The Courier. Her most recent delivery, though, has taken a turn for the worst._

A flash of white, like a crack of lightning, and a sharp pain in her side jolted her eyes open.

"C'mon Courier, time to get up." A gruff male voice called.

"Ugh…where am I?" The girl shakily asked. At this point, she realized that she was surrounded by four scruffy-looking men and a third, dressed in a suit of some kind.

"Time to cash out." The man in the suit said with an accent reminiscent of a 50s' high-roller.

"Look, I don't know what you mean; I have to go…Oof!" She got out after trying to stand, but having your hands and feet tied together will make it hard to get up.

She expected to hit the dirt behind her, but instead she fell down into a hole about her size and 3-4 feet deep which knocked the breath out of her. "Wh-What…"

"Would you get it over with?" one of the other men practically demanded.

"Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig?"

Till this point, the man in the suit had his back to her, but now he turned and removed a platinum poker chip from inside his coat pocket._ Great…that's what these idiots were after… _

"You've made your last delivery, kid," He returned the chip to his pocket and in its place he took out a modified 9mm pistol. "From where you're lying, it must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck."

_You have that right buddy…I don't like where this is going. _The girl thought in vain.

"Truth is, the game was rigged from the start." At that, he lowered his gun and pointed it square between her eyes. The last thing she saw was a golden gun barrel and a flash of fire.

**Three days later…**

Another flash of white, though this time not of pain. In fact, there was no feeling. Breathing heavily, the Courier noticed the soft whirr of a fan and soft padding below her, as if she was on a hospital bed. She stirred and someone lightly touched her shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, take I easy, you were out for a while there."

The girl looked around, and to her left she found a monitor displaying her status on the wall beside the bed. She also realized that she was shackled to the bed at her wrists and ankles. The feeling was a bit unnerving to her, but she tried to ignore it as she acknowledged the man that spoke to her.

"Hi, I'm Doc Mitchell. I spent quite a while poking around in your noggin to get that bullet out."

She cocked her head and her brain pieced together his visage. To her he looked like a kind, bald-headed old man with a mustache.

"Doc…Mitchell?" She confirmed.

"Good, you can talk. When I put your head back together, I think I did a good job, but here, take a look and make sure I got it right." He pulled out a device that she didn't recognize, but she couldn't do much about it in her current state.

"Uh…I can't really do much like this." She nodded towards the restraints.

"Oh, yes, sorry, I forgot about those. I didn't know what kind of person you were, you know?" The cuffs were off soon, and she silently agreed with his decision. If she was in his place, she probably would have done the same thing.

She took the device from him, and noted that it looked like a handheld mirror with computer screens and wires attached to it. She watched as it scanned her and showed a three-dimensional model of her head on the main screen. Her face was fine except for a nasty scar on her forehead. _From the surgery, I guess. Well, it won't stand out that much, and my bangs cover it anyway. _She thought, and after a moment of examining herself, handed the mirror-thingy back to the doctor.

"Yea, you did fine." She confirmed, which gave Doc Mitchell a noticeable level of satisfaction.

"Good, I'm glad I did you good, but what I'm really concerned with is your memory. What's your name?"

"Konami Izumi." She responded.

"Well, not the name I would have picked for you, but it'll do. It is a bit familiar though…"

Before he could continue, Konami, not noticing his recognition of the name, mimed a look of shock. "It's not the name I chose either, but I'm stuck with it. It might seem weird to you because I'm not from around here." She finished.

"Oh, well then where are you from?" The doc asked.

"It's kind of a long story…I guess we could do a trade," She reasoned. Nothing is free in the wasteland, not even information. "I'll tell you about myself, and you tell me what I want to know."

He didn't have to think long. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

There were a lot of things she wanted to know. How much would it take to get a gauss rifle? Where did pigs go? What is a fish? But first, she decided to ask about her location. "Let's start with where I am. Where would you put us on a map?"

"Well, this here is the town of Goodsprings. We are about as far west as you can go without hitting mountains and uncivilized territory. If you want to know where it is in relation to landmarks, we are a few miles north of a town called Primm, which is like a pit-stop on the way to New Vegas. A bit south from us is an intersection that leads two ways. If you keep south, then you will hit Primm, but if you take the eastern route, you will head to Sloan, a mining town a bit down on its luck, which isn't so bad, but they are having some serious deathclaw problems along the Long 15 highway." He finished, giving Konami time to register the info.

She remembered that once her mother, Kagami, told her of a time when she and Konata were jumped by a single deathclaw and it nearly killed both of them. _Note to self-don't fuck with deathclaws,_ She mentally registered.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Mitchell asked.

"Actually, yes. Do you know who it was that shot me and left me for dead?" She asked.

"I wasn't actually the one who found you. It was the town's guard, a securitron named Victor," He said, "In fact others in the town will probably be able to give more than I can on that subject."

"Ok. Thank you for the meds, but I have to get on with it." She said as she stretched and began to get off of the bed.

"By the way, earlier you were asking about where I am from? Well, I was born on the road, somewhere between California and Oregon, but where I most recently lived was the Capitol Wasteland, pretty much for most of my life. Let's see…I'm nineteen now, so I have been away from home for about 3 years now. Random thought, have you ever heard of the Republic of Miyuki?" She closed her recount with a question that she didn't expect him to know, but it was worth a try.

"Actually, I have heard of that place. From what I hear, it's one of the most thriving settlements in the East." He noticed Konami's strange look and waited for her to reply.

She was amazed that he actually knew about it, she had only been away for a few years and she didn't think it could grow _that_ much in a short amount of time. "Wow, I didn't actually expect you to know what it was. If you don't mind me asking, how do you?"

"Well, someone from that town came through here a while back, looking for someone, and she ended up taking the place of Victor as town guard when he's not around. She was young girl, about your age now that I think about it." Again he noticed that Konami was acting strangely.

She realized that there could only be a small number of people it could be, and an even smaller amount of reasons. "Do you remember her name?" She asked, maybe a bit too frantically.

"It was Mariko Hiiragi or something like that. Do you know her?" He tensed up a little, because Konami was getting a look on her face that was…frantic.

"Yes I know her, she's my sister…ish….it's kind of hard to explain, now where is she?" Konami could feel herself starting to lose it.

The doc responded carefully, minding her state. "Trudy at the saloon would know about that better than me, but don't try to stress yourself too much, your head isn't fully healed yet." He said, trying to calm her, though in vain.

She was almost out of the door to a hallway when she realized two things. One, her current 'clothes' were not at all suited for travelling, being her underwear and a sort of patient gown, and two, she had nothing in the way of weapons. This revelation snapped her back to reality a little bit, and she turned back to Doc Mitchell. "Sorry to ask more of you doc, but do you think you could help me out a bit more?" She wondered, patting her leg where a gun holster should be.

"I think I might have some things that you can use in another room. Give me a bit to get it together." He said, and walked past her into the hallway.

She now noticed that slightly to her left were two couches with a fireplace behind them. Walking over to the fireplace, she noticed a Rorschach test on a stand beside the couch._ Probably for testing patients with head trauma. Kind of skipped that one, didn't we? _She thought to herself. On the mantel there were a couple pictures of dogs and possibly the doctor's past patients, but there was one black and white photo in an embellished frame that stood out the most to her. In it were three women, the one to the left looking about Mitchell's age. The two others, though, Konami knew very well. The one in the middle had two long pigtails. Konami smiled. "Mom…" she quietly said. To her mother's right was a woman considerably shorter than the other two, also sporting a strange catlike grin. "_Other _mom…" She continued.

"Like the picture?" Doc Mitchell asked, seeming right over her shoulder. His sudden appearance startled her and she dropped the picture, whose frame shattered on the dusty brick hearth.

"Oh…sorry, I…" She began, but the doctor cut her off.

"Don't worry about that, it's my fault," He said as he walked over and rescued the photo from the shards of glass. He looked at it with a gleam in his eye. "The woman to the left was my wife. I guess you know who the other two are, as you have the same name. "He continued, and put the picture in Konami's hands.

"We wanted to visit California as well as your family. In fact, we wanted to live there. These folks met us on our way up through Oregon, and they had a little baby girl with blue hair and eyes with them. That, I'm guessing, was you. We did a little sightseeing, had a good time. After that we went our separate ways. Shortly after that, we got turned around and ended up back here. My wife spent her last days in this house."

She didn't really know what to say, or why he was giving her the picture. Maybe it was to help him forget, or maybe he wanted to give her something to remember her parents by. Whatever the reason, she just waited for him to continue.

He opened up the battered footlocker resting on the couch and showed her its contents.

"I thought you looked about my wife's size, so here I have her Pip-Boy and Vault jumpsuit. We grew up in Vault 21 in New Vegas; go there if you get the chance. Anyway, do you know how to work one of these things? I know your folks had them…"

"Yes, I know the basics. I've seen them in action before so I'm familiar with the system." Konami said as she put on the Vault 21 jumpsuit. _Hmm, perfect fit, _she thought, and put on the Pip-Boy glove. The glove goes on under the Pip-Boy and its purpose is to improve the wearer's connection to the device. Without this, wearing a Pip-Boy would be very painful. She slipped the machine onto her left forearm and winced as the diagnostic needles connected to the nerve endings in her arm. The amber-themed screen booted up and the lighted buttons on the side followed suit. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, she found that the screens were set up in three tiers. The first was a status screen with text displays of the wearer's wellbeing as well as an optional audio clarification. Currently, her status was displayed with the Vault Boy mascot sporting a bandage on his forehead. Cute. Just to test it, she tapped a button to the left of the screen and was greeted by a robotic female voice that stated her condition in a low tone. "DIAGNOSTIC REPORT: minor forehead laceration. Self-healing commenced. Estimated time of complete healing-approx. one day four hours. END OF REPORT"

_Okay, nothing new, that's good, _she thought as she yawned and noticed the last items in the footlocker-a laser pistol in pristine condition a brahmin leather holster and 30 energy cells. _Well, this is lucky. I am pretty good with energy weapons._ She buckled the holster to her waist and turned to the doctor. "It would be impossible to thank you enough for what you have done. I just hope I won't have to come back here again for the same reasons." She said, and placed the pistol by her side.

"You don't have to thank me; I'm just doing my job. Now go on. You have things to do and people to meet." He ushered her to the door.

She was halfway out when he grabbed arm "Just don't get killed again." He said with a wink and let her go.

Konami nodded and stepped out. Judging from the brightness, it was anywhere from twelve to twelve-thirty in the afternoon. _Now to find Trudy._

**CHAPTER 2: Familiar Territory**

It was bright. Konata groaned and rubbed her eyes before sitting up and realizing that Kagami was nowhere to be found. "Grr couldn't have woken me up, Kagamin?" Konata said to no one in particular. She glanced down at her Pip-Boy and saw that it was 10:00 am. on May 8, 2300. One of the first things she did if she woke up and Kagami wasn't there was search possible places she could be. Konata peered into the bathroom and found it empty. She clicked her tongue and stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the Republic of Miyuki. Since the events of Project Purity, the Capitol Wasteland was a safer place, but the sacrifice that was made for the apparent safety was much too great. Although one can agree that no one missed the Capitol Super Mutants (there are different types that are far more civilized) and deathclaws, there were many ghouls who didn't deserve to be eradicated because of a physical difference, even if some other humans will argue about that, and there were also a large number of wastelanders that were wiped out because of slight defects. The only thing of good report that came out of that experience was the Capitol branch of the Enclave being taken down. Even the Brotherhood of Steel didn't escape unscathed, as they were also disbanded in this region. As far as Konata knew, the Republic of Miyuki was the only settlement in the Capitol wastes that thrived, as they had made extreme technological and architectural advancements in recent years. The building she was living in was recently constructed using various salvaged ruins, some collected from the ruins of Old Olney, the closest reliable source of scrap.

"This _is_ an impressive place…" Konata said, again, to no one in particular. "I guess I'll check the town hall." She concluded, and began her trek through the three-story residential building, passing familiar faces and wastelanders.

She made her way across a gravelly path that wound through the Republic. She saw a caravan driver and waved. Not too long ago the Republic had set up trade agreements with a branch of the Crimson Caravan. The entrance to the town hall resembled something ancient Roman or Greek, but downscaled. The usual guards were outside, and Konata nodded to them and she would have entered if not for one of the scouts flying out of the door with Kagami yelling after him.

"I don't give a damn about your problems!" she shouted at the scout that disappeared and one that still remained. "My daughter is out there unaccounted for and you are going to sit there and tell me I'm overreacting?" She growled in a voice that was quieter, but equally threatening.

Konata waltzed in and tapped the scout on the shoulder and he took that as his cue to slink out.

"Come on, Kagamin, you know that their frail forms can't possibly stand up to you. They might have had actual reasons for coming back empty-handed." Konata said, attempting to soften the mood, but not exactly succeeding.

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Konata." Kagami forced out. Konata could see it was all she could do not to either unload all of her rage on her or break down crying.

Konata knew that anything she said at this point that anything she said would probably make Kagami angrier, but she had to try something.

"Look, I'm just as stressed as you right now, but I have a plan." She attempted to make Kagami calm down again.

And it more or less worked. "What kind of plan?" Kagami hissed, and turned toward the wall trying to burn a hole in it with the most malicious death-stare she could muster.

"The Brotherhood Outcasts are working on getting the train system back into working order again. They have already cleared out most of the inner DC metro tunnels, and they are starting to work out to the rest of the area." Konata began, but Kagami cut her off.

"Sorry, but how is this a plan? I mean, do you know how long it would take to clear out the tunnels in the Capitol Wasteland, much less the other two-thirds of the continent that they would have to cover to get all the way to the Mojave? I think it would just be faster to walk there."

Konata internally agreed with her. She knew it was a longshot, and at least Kagami didn't yell at her.

"So, what's your plan?" Konata asked.

Kagami suddenly gained a maniacal smirk. "Walking sounds good."

Konata was taken aback, and she made a mistake by humoring her. "Okay, but do you plan to walk over halfway across the country in nuclear summer?"

Kagami's smirk had not faded, but she gained a more serious look. "Of course. And you're coming with me.


	2. Act 2

**CHAPTER 3: Reunited**

The first thing Konami saw when her vision recovered from its sudden meeting with light was a caravan, by the looks of it from the Crimson Caravan. _If worse comes to worst, I can probably follow them or trade with them._ She thought as she passed through Doc Mitchell's gate onto the main street of Goodsprings. There wasn't much to the town, only three buildings on the left side of the road, and a water tower, a windmill, and a few rows of decrepit houses on the right side. As she was moving towards the business at the far side of the road, the Prospector Saloon, she was nearly run down by hulking robot with a single wheel and a monitor with the face of a cowboy on it in the center of its metal body.

"What?!" Konami exclaimed while trying to evade the wall of metal headed toward her.

"Howdy partner! Might I say you are looking fit as a fiddle?" The machine yelled at her.

"I'm guessing you're Victor?" She asked while attempting to put some distance between them.

"That's right, little lady." He said, and just…did nothing as if expecting a flood of questions or something.

Konami tried to get around him, but his fidgeting prevented her from going anywhere. "Well, thanks for saving my life. Do you know who it was who shot me?"

He then cheerfully bounced up and down, happy for a question. "Well, I can't say I'm familiar with the rascals, but someone in the town might be able to help you out."

_So, I'll ask around. Geez, you weren't nearly as helpful as I thought you would be. _She thought, and then walked off. "Thanks Victor." He got the gist and started in the opposite direction.

"I'm always happy to help a stranger in need." She saw the bot off and headed to the nearest shop.

Apparently it was some sort of pawn shop, and she thought maybe someone had found some of her stuff and pawned it. She walked in and a bell sounded, drawing a drowsy-looking clerk out of the back room.

"What you see is what you got. Don't touch it if you're not going to buy it."

Konami rolled her eyes and looked into a freezer that once might have held…well…something frozen, but now the glass was broken out, and all that was in it was a few ears of corn and hot beer.

"So, the sign says Chet. That you?" She asked as she strolled to the counter.

"Yep. You know, you look like a girl that can handle herself, but that injury might have thrown you off your game." He said, and gestured toward her forehead.

"Actually, I think I'm fine, thanks." She said, a little annoyed.

He came out of his sleepiness a bit to inform her of a possible job. "Sure, sure. Did you see that gas station a bit past the Doc's house?"

"Yes, what about it?"

Chet just vaguely waved to his left. "Go talk to Trudy at the saloon. She can fill you in on the details. Now are you going to buy something or not?" He asked with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Is that how you treat all of your customers?" She counter-asked, but didn't hang around for an answer.

Pushing out into the day, she checked the time on her Pip-Boy. "Hmm, it's 3:30…it's been longer than I thought." With no more interruptions, she made good time on her trek to the saloon. Out in front, there were three pre-war motorcycles parked in a formation that may have been significant 250 years ago. She went up on the front steps of the former biker bar and was greeted by an old man who looked ready for anything. She did a small wave and the man dipped his hat in response. When she stepped inside, she was faced with a dog's confused bark. She looked down and saw that the strange yelp had come from Cherry, Konata's dog.

"Cherry?! What are you doing here, girl?" Konami asked, and when she looked up, she got her answer.

"M-Mariko? Wha…but…really?" Was all that she could get out before she got up and hugged Mariko.

Her face reddened and she patted Konami on the back to signal a return of feelings. "This is great and everything, but the saloon is pretty crowded…could we go out back to talk?" Mariko asked, and Konami yielded.

"Ok, I'll be out there in a bit." Konami said as she released Mariko. She watched her younger sister go around the corner and whistle for Cherry, who cocked her head at Konami, but followed Mariko all the same. _Wow…she's really here. I thought she would have gone home after she didn't find me the first time. Did she leave on Mom's orders, or on her own, then? I guess I'll just ask her myself. _She thought, and traced Mariko's steps.

When she exited the door, Mariko called "Heads up!" and a varmint rifle was thrown at her, which lined up with the front of her face. She caught the rifle before it could fall to the dry, cracked ground, and yelled at a giggling Mariko. "That hurt! Great holy one horned brahmin, give me enough of a damn warning next time!" She rubbed her cheek, which was gouged by the lower sights of the gun.

"Heh…sorry…ha…I'll do that!" Mariko forced out between fits of laughter.

_She is just like aunt Tsukasa...absent-minded and easily amused. _Konami thought, smiling through the stinging of her face. She examined the gun while waiting for the girl to calm down and found that though the gun wasn't loaded, there was a spare magazine of ammo tied to the side of the stock.

"So, what's the gun for?" Konami asked in a manner of mock irritation.

"Well, you need to be armed…" Mariko said with a puzzled look on her face. "…And it's important that you learn to use weapons that shoot actual projectiles, not just those techy lasers."

Even though Mariko was slightly younger than Konami, she still had an impressive amount of knowledge when it came to maintaining more conventional firearms, while Konami followed much in Kagami's footsteps, choosing to use laser weapons. She was pretty good at patching up wounds in a pinch though, even if her medical knowledge didn't do anything for her in her last predicament.

"Okay, I see where you're coming from." Konami said, now glancing at the fence to the side of the saloon. "You didn't bring me out here to hunt bottles did you?" She asked skeptically.

Mariko thought a bit about her response. "I had to make sure you could still shoot with that hole in your head, so yea, you are going to hunt bottles for now, but I have something else planned for later."

At that Konami sighed, but let Mariko tell her all about sight pictures, distance, and crouching, which she didn't think she would have to take into consideration, seeing as how even if she tried this with a laser weapon, she would probably be more accurate by just hip-firing it. None-the-less, she became the queen of the bottles, and she learned about Mariko's 'next big job'.

"So are you in? All you need to help me with is clearing out the overgrown lizards from the water purifier to the south a ways." Mariko finished as she stood up and stretched. "On second thought, why don't we tackle this tomorrow? It's getting kind of late." She said, scratching her head and smiling cutely at Konami.

"I guess you don't have to ask me twice with a look like that. Where are we going to stay?" Konami asked, looking down into her palm at the sun baked dust, which had turned from orange to dark red in the dusk.

Mariko touched a finger to her lip and continued. "Well, I have a bed at Trudy's place, but I don't think she has enough room for all of us."

Konami pushed off of the wall she was leaning on and headed around the west side of the saloon. She gave a short wave to Mariko as she left. "It's OK. I think I might have a place to go. See you here tomorrow morning." She called and disappeared around the corner.

Mariko noticed that Konami left her rifle leaning against the fence, along with all of the ammunition Mariko gave her. _OK…if she won't use those kinds of guns I won't force her. I don't know how effective those lasers are against what she would find in this wasteland, but it's her choice. _Mariko stretched again and headed around the north side of the saloon, in the direction of the rows of houses. _I wonder where Cherry is…she came out here with me right? Oh well…_ She thought to herself as she maneuvered around a pen holding some large, mutated goat creatures called bighorners.

Passing along beside Chet's shop, Konami spotted a random brahmin train travelling past, presumably headed towards Primm. She waved toward them and one of the mercenaries guarding the caravan nodded at her and hefted his rifle. Konami rolled her eyes as she moved through the gate to Doc Mitchell's house. She knocked on his door and when he opened it he seemed surprised.

"Oh, I didn't expect to see you back here so soon. Are you okay?" Mitchell asked her as he beckoned her inside.

"Yea, I'm fine," Konami began as she edged through the door. "I was just out of a place to stay for the night and I was wondering if you would help me out again." She finished

Doc Mitchell led her further into the house. "Sure, you can come here any time you need my help, or are just out of a place to stay like tonight." He said as he turned into an extra room of the house that looked neat, but unused for a while.

"Thanks. You really are doing a lot for me for free." She said, almost suspiciously.

Mitchell turned around and did a half wave as he walked out of the room. "Well, I guess I just feel like it's my responsibility. I mean, it's not often that I'm able to help someone who is shot in the head, you know."

She nodded to herself and closed the door behind him. The room wasn't too impressive; all that populated it was a dusty wardrobe and a two-person bed. She looked down at herself and clenched her fists.

_I have my sister back, now all that's left is to find who shot me and return the favor. I _will_ have to get some better armor though…_She thought as she undressed and laid her laser pistol and jumpsuit beside the bed. _I will be very busy tomorrow, what with Mariko's job and my potential upgrade. Maybe I can get Mitchell to give me a couple stimpaks…_

**Chapter 4: NEAR MISS**

"Uhhhhhgh. I hate the wasteland. It's nothing but rocks. I'm soooo hungry…" Konata moaned as she slid down against the nearest boulder she could find.

Kagami looked back and saw Konata panting on her rock. "Oh, snap out of it. You're still so immature. We're almost halfway there anyway, look." Kagami said while pointing at a sign beside the road that said: **WELCOME TO CARBON, AMERICA'S HOME TOWN.**

Konata looked up and pushed off of the rock. "Oh come on, Kagami, I was just messing with you. Besides, we have enough food to last us-" She began as she stuck her hand in the sack that was supposed to be holding their food, but now only had empty cans and rocks. "What…more rocks?!" Konata yelled as she realized that they had been cheated.

"Konata, I told you not to trust those guys in Dallas! Sure they may have given us a place to stay, but now this?!" Kagami screamed, but she calmed quickly as she ran through their options. "Well, I guess we _have_ to go to this Carbon place anyway, to restock. Just…be more careful." She sighed.

Konata sighed as well and dumped out the now useless contents of the bag. She followed Kagami in the direction the sign was pointing, kicking a can along the way. When they got closer to the town, they noticed that it looked like something had been there somewhat recently, but that was only judging by tracks left by brahmin and other creatures that they didn't want to visualize. Moving up the main road, they soon realized that no living human had been in this area for a long time. There were only three buildings that looked suitable for use, but just barely. Kagami moved west along the ruin of a residential building to get to the brightest prospect for food, an old bar, while Konata scoped out a steel mill.

With little trouble, Kagami maneuvered around a few rocks and husks of vehicles to get to the bar, which looked as if some creature of the wastes had taken up residence in the building, as it had a large hole in the wall facing east. Her guess was proven right when she got closer to investigate and a large wasp with a body roughly the size of a toddler and a set of four bright orange wings shot out of the hole to greet her.

Konata assumed that there would be little chance of salvaging anything of value if it came out of that mill, because it had been sacked before, by the looks of it. She crouched beside the body of a raider that had met his end so long ago that his leather armor was mostly gone, and what was left of it was hardened and cracked, to say nothing of the gray bones inside it. She picked up his ancient 10mm pistol and tried to unload the magazine, but found that it was firmly rusted in place. "Hmmm…" Konata mused as she dropped the junk and stepped over the raider's corpse, closing the few feet to the entrance of the mill with no problems. To her surprise, the door opened almost automatically and she was kicked in the face by a figure with power armor.

Kagami dove out of the way just in time as the huge bug tried to impale her with its foot-long stinger.

"Unhhh, damn! What is that?" She hissed as she regained her balance and frantically rained down laser pistol beams on the creature. It made a sound Kagami would never forget as one of its left wings was burned off as it tried again to sting her, causing it to lose its balance and bury its stinger in the hard earth. Kagami took her chance and reduced the rest of the bug to ashes. _What the hell was that thing? I haven't seen anything like it…_She thought as she snuck over to the hole, peering in to make sure there were no more in hiding. When she was satisfied, she stepped through the hole into the bar wall and looked around. Since it was still early in the day, light streamed in through the slits between the boards on the windows. She entered the room behind the bar, and to her surprise, there was still a large supply of whiskey ready for sale. _We might be able to sell these at the next settlement…_She reasoned with herself as she filled her bag with bottles of the alcohol. She looked around and found at least fifty caps, a few microfusion cells, and a few boxes of Salisbury steak. Kagami sighed and leaned on the wall by the hole, closing her eyes. She didn't know what hit her as an armored hand grabbed her and put her to sleep.

Konata groaned as she was rudely awaken by a piercing light in her eyes. "Kagami…just another second oka…." She began, still half asleep, but interrupted by a strong hand hitting her shoulder.

"_Wake up girl. We have some questions for you and your babysitter._" Said a grainy sounding power armored voice.

Konata was now fully awareof herself, but she couldn't see much because of the flashlight in her eyes. "Wait…who do you think I am?" She hissed at the soldier. Even though she was in her late twenties, she looked about half the size of everyone in the wasteland. She had never figured out what had stunted her growth so much. At that point, she heard Kagami laughing to her right. She glared in that direction and tried to calmly explain to the armored one how her situation really was. "Look, buddy, to tell you the truth, I am probably older than you are, okay? Even though I might not look like it…" She trailed off as Kagami calmed down.

"Wow, gearhead, I haven't heard that one yet. 'Babysitter', huh. Yea, you have us all wrong. If you want to know why we're here, we were trying to get to the Mojave wasteland in the west, but we needed food and water, so we wound up here. Happy?" Kagami said to the armored man with a casual tone, contrary to her delicate position.

Not responding immediately, the armored man paced slowly, working through his thoughts. He appeared to have a lot on his mind. Finally, he turned to Kagami and calmly relayed his thoughts. "_Look, I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not a bad guy. I am just trying to find somewhere to go, just like you._" He said, pointing at the women. "_But, I can't have you going around telling everyone you see who I am._"

He turned off the glaring light that was in their eyes and started to unshackle Konata when Kagami remembered where she had seen that armor before. It was jury-rigged and modified heavily, but she could see that it was-

"Enclave?!" Kagami yelled at the man.

"_So, you know. I did think that a grown woman the size of an elementary school student and a laser wielding tsundere character were pretty unique. I was there when you killed my friends and family back on the Crawler. That was some impressive handiwork, I have to admit. I mean, you released the deathclaws into the crew and passenger quarters all while slaughtering Enclave and nuking the Brotherhood of Steel. Two bloatflies with one stone, huh?_" Kagami was taken aback by the soldier's words. It had been so long ago, and what he said was exactly true. The words themselves weren't what surprised her the most, though. He said them with a cold voice, almost like a cross between suggesting that he admired her, or mortally hated her.

He left Konata still half attached to the wall and grabbed Kagami's face in his left hand, and picked up something with the other. "_Oh, don't get that look yet, Miss Hiiragi. You held a high rank in the Enclave right? You left everyone behind that were in the BoS for that time, _and _tried to kill them too. You must have been pretty down on your luck, huh?_" The armored man's face drew closer to hers until they were almost touching."_You not only had to go out of your way to kill _MY_ loved ones, you killed some of _YOUR OWN_ too. Great life, _RIGHT_?_"

Konata heard this and just let her head hang. Kagami looked into the eye sockets of the Enclave Remnants armor in front of her. She concluded that he was nothing more than a suit of armor, there to try to push her over the edge. She didn't want to let that happen, but deep inside, the screaming armor left a crack in her. She lashed out, yelling and head-butting the suit of power armor. He didn't even flinch, even after she did it as many times as her body would let her. The only thing that came out of that was Kagami slumping, her bangs matted with sad blood. What she wanted was for the machine in front of her to disappear.

He made a sound of satisfaction as he wiped some blood off of his armor's eye socket so he could get a better view of his accomplishment. He then raised his right arm to reveal a ripper, a small, handheld chainsaw used mainly for cutting steel in construction projects. "_Surprised, Hiiragi? I guess you thought you eliminated every last one of us, huh? Well, this is what I say to that…_" He began as he revved the ripper.

Konata looked at the shackle on her left leg, almost oblivious to the scene, until she glanced up and saw the crazed Enclave officer raise the ripper, laughing all the while. "NOOOO! DON'T TOUCH HER YOU SON OF A BIIIIIII-" She attempted to get out, before the soldier hit her as hard as he could with his right arm, sending her into the air a bit, the shackle on her leg stopping her ascent and dropping her to the concrete floor. Before Konata blacked out, she knew right off that she had a few broken ribs, and her leg was no doubt dislocated. She attempted to reach toward Kagami's general direction, but her body stopped her, putting her to sleep.

Kagami looked up, squinting through the blood pouring over her eyes, into the empty eyes of the machine. "Go ahead, do it. You are a bit too late, though. Someone already eviscerated me once, *cough* nothing worse than you can do…" She looked over at Konata. She wasn't dead, but getting smacked full force by a suit of power armor without protection probably messed her up pretty badly…

"_Hey, look at me when I kill you. I want to see the look on your face when I show you what the inside of your chest cavity looks like._" The Enclave officer said as he re-revved the ripper.

Kagami knew what it felt like to die. She had done it before, and in much worse circumstances. She knew that Konata didn't need her anymore, but she didn't want to make her feel as hopeless as she did when she thought Konata, the only one she had ever genuinely loved, had died. She gave up on life then, too. She didn't much care who died then, because she thought her sister, Tsukasa, had died at the hands of the Enclave as well. All she wanted was for everything to feel her pain, and now, ironically, in this better time she saw her wish being granted when she wanted it to be forgotten the most. She chuckled a little, and the armor was surprised.

"_Don't you realize you are about to die? What do you have to laugh about?_" He inquired, genuinely surprised.

"Heh….don't you see? Ha Ha, I wanted you to feel alone and dead inside, just like me, and now, when I have everything the way I want it, you finally show up…Ha ha!" Kagami, choked out, now openly laughing.

The Enclave man let out a little chuckle of his own. "_Heh, that is pretty funny. Doesn't change my feelings towards you though._" He said, stone cold again.

"I didn't expect it to. Are you going to get this over with now? I'm kind of getting tired of hanging here." Kagami said, matching his mood.

"_My pleasure…_" He said, revving his ripper one last time. Kagami thought she heard a faraway crash, but she dismissed it.

She clenched her teeth as the Enclave man brought the ripper down onto the center of her chest, instantly slashing a hole in her undershirt, the clothes he left both women in when he captured them.

Kagami was getting ready to scream when a .308 Sniper round tore through the soldier's helmet, imploding his head. His body did a 180o spin to the left and the ripper flew out of his hand, embedding itself in the concrete ground, drilling a good sized rift in the floor until it jammed up.

Kagami was left with nothing more than a scratch on her chest and a hole in her shirt. She felt her body shaking, drenched with sweat and blood. She told herself she accepted death, and then she was rescued. She let her head hang as tears formed and mixed with the blood on her face and dripped to the ground. She willed herself to look up in the direction the sniper round came from and saw two familiar faces rushing toward her and Konata. The first person kneeled next to Konata and ordered the other one to check on Kagami. When the one told to come to her walked under the hanging light fixture, Kagami began to cry harder. Tsukasa ran over and hugged Kagami, crying right along with her.

When the other person was done checking on Konata, she stepped into the light as well. "D-Dr. Tamura?" Kagami asked her. "Why…why are you here with Tsukasa?"

Hiyori set down the sniper rifle as she bent down to inspect the Enclave armor. "Well, it actually wasn't my idea. Tsukasa wanted to follow you guys in case you needed help, so we left a day after you," She rooted around in his armor until she found what she was looking for. "And it looks like it was a good thing we did too…" Hiyori said, holding up the keys to Konata and Kagami's restraints.

"Oh…yea I guess so." Kagami shakily said as she was released from her bonds.

"Maybe you should get some rest…what happened to your head?" Hiyori asked, lightly touching Kagami's forehead. "God, that's pretty bad, you lost a lot of blood…Tsukasa, would you look around and see if you can find something that they can lay on?" Hiyori requested as she tore off the sleeve of her coat and tied it around Kagami's head to try and stop the bleeding.

"Right away!" Tsukasa confirmed as she let go of Kagami's arm and went into a room at the far end of the hall marked STORAGE.

"Will you be okay without any help for now Kagami? I have to tend to Konata."

"Uhhhnhh…yea…" Kagami said as she sat against the wall she was chained to.

Hiyori nodded and looked at Konata's form on the ground. _She still hasn't so much as moved for at least an hour…I hope we can help her…_She thought as she unlocked the shackle on Konata's ankle and delicately turned her around and propped her on the wall next to Kagami._ I hope Tsukasa gets back soon…_

Just then Tsukasa returned from the room on cue, carrying two sleeping bags. "Will these work, Dr. Hiyori?" She asked as she moved as fast as she could towards the injured couple.

"Yes, they'll do. Just set them up here, if you don't mind." Hiyori got up as Tsukasa made an affirmative noise and began unrolling them.

Hiyori walked away from the group, deep in thought. _What would have happened if we hadn't gotten here sooner…that isn't important! What is important is fixing them up…What the hell were they doing to get hurt like this? I guess I'll ask them when they get up…_She thought, looking up through a hole in the roof of the mill generator area which framed the full moon perfectly. _I guess all is not lost. They are here, they're hurt, but they're safe. Tsukasa was adamant on finding Mariko as well as Konami, but Kagami wouldn't let Tsukasa leave with her and Konata. I guess her main concern was her child. I wish I knew what it felt like to have that kind of love for someone…_


	3. Act 3

**Chapter 5: GECKO WRANGLING**

Konami woke up fairly early the next morning and was out behind Trudy's saloon at eight in the morning, which was actually late for her. She was outside the saloon for at least three hours looking around and getting used to the environment before Mariko showed up. _Wow, she even sleeps like aunt Tsukasa too…_ "Where have you been? I should have known you would be late like always…" Konami criticized.

Mariko came around the corner yawning and stretching with her rifle at the ready. "Oooooh, don't get all flustered, I'm just a little late." She said nonchalantly.

Konami tapped her foot and closed the box that she was looking in and walked to Mariko, patting her on the shoulder. "I was just beginning to worry, is all. I think you need to get your internal clock fixed."

"Whaaaat? There's a clock inside me?" Mariko asked, much to Konami's disbelief.

Konami walked away with her face in her hands. "_Oh yea, _Mariko. There is definitely _a clock _inside you. Ugh, it's just an expression."

"Oh. You had me going there for a while, he he…" Mariko trailed off, silent for a few seconds. "Anyway, down to business. I need you to help me clear some geckos away from the water purifiers. The idiots are attracted to the thing or something. I have to clear them out of there every month or so." She said, checking her ammo.

"So, you must have been here a while, huh?" Konami asked, leaning on the fence.

Mariko sat down on a rock near Konami. "Yea, I came down here a while back, looking for you, actually. Jeez, whenever mom finds me, I'm dead!" She said, slapping her forehead.

"What was it this time, Mariko?" Konami asked with a smirk.

"Well, I didn't exactly ask them if I could come all this way. Do you think Kagami or Tsukasa would let me go if I just asked?" She replied, leaning over.

Konami left the fence and retrieved Mariko's gun. "What happened back at home isn't important now, I guess. Let's focus on the here-and-now. Which way is the water purifier?"

Mariko got off the rock and took her rifle. "It's down southwest a ways. Come on, I'll show you." She said as they set off.

They chose to take the long way around Goodsprings so they didn't have to walk through peoples' weak gardens, and it took out a good chunk of the day. It was midafternoon when they finally arrived at a rock outcropping suspending part of the purification system of Goodsprings.

Mariko stopped Konami as she heard a growling noise followed by a screech up on the outcropping. "Hear that on the rocks behind me? That's them. They're nothing but a bunch of little demons. Because of them it seems like Doc Mitchell is treating more gecko bites than anything else nowadays." She pulled out her varmint rifle as Konami readied her laser pistol. "Crouch down. We can get the drop on them that way." Mariko said as she crouched as well.

They moved up the south side of the rock wall until they could see one of the small water wells dotting the area.

"You're on. Give em' hell" Mariko said as she motioned for Konami to go ahead of her.

She responded with a nod and moved a bit further up until the wall curved, giving way to a space about half the size of a parking lot littered with rocks and bones. At the end of the field stood what looked like a gecko mixed with a snake and a body roughly her size. Luckily, the creature had its back to her, and she was able to catch it by surprise, unloading as many laser rounds as she could get out in the window of time she had. To her surprise, it didn't take much to kill the thing, because as soon as her first few laser rounds connected with it, the gecko collapsed into a pile of ashes.

Mariko whistled. "Good shot sis! Melted that little thing!"

Konami didn't have time to respond because as soon as the ash had settled, an additional gecko tore around the corner to the left of the water well. Konami sighed and shot another barrage of lasers at the lizard, melting down the right portion of its body with little effort. After she inspected it, she returned to Mariko.

"Wow, I guess you have your side of things under control. There are still two more wells that need clearing, are you in?" Mariko asked with one hand on the rock wall and the other on her gun.

"Lead the way." Konami said, and Mariko waved for her to follow as she bypassed the field and went further south. Not caring for stealth this time, she went ahead of Konami through a small ditch and opened fire on the family of geckos occupying the next purifier. They put up a decent fight, and if it wasn't for their teamwork Konami and Mariko probably would have been worse off. A gecko leaped to bite Mariko, its teeth like fat needles. Konami grimaced and kicked it in the chin, throwing it off balance while Mariko took care of two other chargers. Konami ran to where the gecko landed and gave it another solid kick before she made short work of its hide with her laser pistol. They nodded at each other and headed to the next well.

Konami took the high road and spotted three geckos viciously assaulting a Goodsprings citizen, and she yelled for Mariko to distract some of them. Konami was on an outcropping of rock overlooking the last water well, and she knew that if she didn't do something fast, then that girl was going to become mincemeat at the hands of the geckos. Her vantage point allowed her to have a good shot at the geckos, but their movement was so erratic that she couldn't get a definite hit on any of them, only managing to waste all of her energy cells.

"Mariko! Help the girl!" She yelled, trying to climb down the rocky wall as fast as she could, which wasn't a good move as she lost her grip halfway down and fell a few feet to the ground. She wasn't hurt too bad, but it defeated her chances of trying to help the poor woman who was soon overtaken by the geckos. Mariko broke into a full on sprint in an attempt to save her, but she was stopped dead in her tracks when a severed arm fell to the ground in front of her, dotting her clothes and face with blood.

"What…why…" She said as she sank to her knees, holding up her hands to her face, clenching her fists. "NO!" She screamed at the geckos as another unidentifiable part of the woman landed to her left. She slowly got up and removed the combat knife from her boot and ran as fast as she could possibly will herself to move towards the creatures, jamming her knife through the right eye of the first gecko she got to, ending it right there. The next one over was covered in blood from the first gecko mixed with that of the unfortunate civilian. She growled and swung her short blade upwards, gutting the monster and propelling it on top of the third, which was still in the middle of its meal, making it grunt and lose its balance, giving Mariko the opportunity she needed to hack it up.

Konami got to one knee, still wheezing from the sudden fall. She looked up through blurry eyes to see Mariko standing over an unrecognizable mass of flesh, repeatedly stabbing it and muttering. Konami cursed herself and walked to Mariko when she finally stopped, leaving the knife lodged in the mess. Konami put her hands on Mariko's shoulders and led her to the valve that the Goodsprings people get their fresh water from and stripped her bare, washing her blood-saturated clothes and then her body.

After a while of them just sitting there, Mariko said nothing when she got up and put her underclothes back on and carried her clothes towards the southernmost tip of Goodsprings territory.

Konami went along with it and followed. By that time it was pretty late in the day, and the sun had begun to set over the rocky horizon, casting a deep orange and red glow over the area ahead of them. _It sickens me that that such beautiful things are still possible in this hell…_Konami thought as Mariko led her to a campsite that seemed to have somewhat regular use. Mariko sat down on one of the long wooden blocks used as benches at the campsite and motioned for Konami to come to her.

"There are a couple more things I could tell you about survival, but you would probably disregard them anyway. In any case, here." Mariko handed Konami a piece of paper with what looked like a recipe on it. "It's called healing powder, Legionaries use it a lot. Basically, it has distinct pros and cons to its abilities, healing you, but also blurring your vision a bit because of the strength of the mix. If you get a chance, try and make some, I'm sure it will help you in the wasteland." She finished as she leaned over and worked at getting a fire lit.

"I guess we can camp out here for the night if it's okay with you." She asked.

Konami sat down cross-legged beside her and stretched. "Yeah, it is almost dark out. I don't have a problem."

Mariko nodded and poked at the fire some more until she finally got an ember to light up the wood in the fire pit. "Have you seen Cherry today? I haven't seen her all day, it's like she disappeared." She asked Konami absentmindedly.

"No, I didn't see her…but earlier I thought I heard a dog growl back at the first well. If you want, we can go back and check the area tomorrow." Konami concluded.

Mariko just closed her eyes. Konami looked around and saw that there was a campsite that had been set up recently.

"I come out here sometimes, with Cherry. It's the only place where I feel like I can be safe, even though it's only a stone's throw away from geckos, usually." Mariko said quietly.

Konami moved to get a better look at Mariko's face. "Mariko, why did you really come all this way? Was it all for me?" She asked as she put a hand on Mariko's shoulder. She could tell by the glow of the fire on her face that Mariko was tearing up. _Shit, I'm no good at this kind of thing…_Konami thought to herself as Mariko grabbed her up into a strong hug, holding her and crying freely.

"…I'm sorry…you were gone s-so long…I wa…I was so worried!" She choked out as Konami hugged her solemnly back. "I'm not c-cut out…for this…that woman…we couldn't _do anything_!" They sat like that for a period of time as Konami tried to let Mariko's feelings calm a little.

"Shhhh, shhhh. Don't worry. I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm sorry…" Konami said as she yielded to Mariko's emotions and shed some tears herself, rocking back and forth with her sister.

Eventually, they made their way to the small encampment set up on the other side of the fire and crawled into the makeshift tent that Konami assumed that Mariko used often. There they remained for the rest of the night, sobbing occasionally, and thinking about all of the things that could have been better if they had just done things differently.

**CHAPTER 6: Emissary of Darkness**

Kagami woke on the second night of their stay in Carbon, Texas, over halfway to her goal, but already meeting so much opposition. Konata was recovering quickly with the help of a few stimpaks Hiyori brought with her just in case. As it was, they found that Konata had received much worse than they could see on the outside, but they were able to scan her with Tsukasa's Pip-Boy, seeing that she had four broken ribs, a broken ankle, her right leg horribly dislocated, and a fractured jaw. With Tsukasa and Hiyori's medical expertise, they were able to fix her broken bones quickly, but they could only put her leg back into place and hope that it would heal correctly. She was almost ready to travel after two days, but Hiyori wanted to make sure the treatment would be permanent, so she wanted them to stay a little longer, much to Kagami's disdain.

Kagami got up in the middle of the night, and she checked everyone to make sure no one else was awake before she walked to the storage room of the mill. When Tsukasa was back there, she mentioned seeing Kagami's bag, but she didn't mess with it. _I'm glad she didn't go through my stuff…she might have seen all of that alcohol and got the wrong idea…_She told herself as she pushed through the door as silently as possible, closing it in the same manner. When the door shut completely, she was left in total darkness, but she had her Pip-Boy handy and she turned the screen brightness up to high in order to cast a greenish glow over everything in the room. She quickly spotted her bag and went through it, taking out all of the bottles of whiskey she had stashed away, counting them. _Let's see, I have seven bottles, so if I were to sell these, then I could get seventy caps…well…maybe sixty…_She thought as she set six of the bottles aside and put one of them next to her. She looked through her bag to retrieve the remaining contents, four microfusion cells and three boxes of Salisbury steak.

She returned the ammo and food to her bag, along with the six bottles of whiskey she had set aside… _Hah, hah, you're just dancing around it girl. You know deep in your heart what you feel like, what you did. Otherwise, you wouldn't have brought any of that whiskey with you. You know what you want…_A voice not unlike her own called from the darkness of the room around her. "Go away…I've already dealt with you. I…I'm not the same. I could never go back to that!" She whispered to the darkness…_You know you haven't. I am you, Kagami. You can't just escape the past. Sure you have friends now that would help you, but just think back. The only thing you've ever been is a little bitch too concerned with herself to give a damn about anything or anyone else. Remember the time you punched out Konata? Ohhhhh, that was fun. And now, here we are, one woman and a bottle of whiskey..._

Kagami looked around, vainly trying to find the source of the voice until she looked down at the bottle, and saw not only her hand on It, but another one as well. She looked up and found herself staring into the eyes of…everyone. Everyone she had left behind, indirectly killed, and let die right in front of her. She saw Misao, pinned to the wall by a huge shard of glass because she was stupid enough to let Kuroi go. She saw Minami, who was torn to shreds by deathclaws _trying to save her,_ because she had given up on herself, and didn't care about anyone or anything else. But the most striking face was her own. She saw herself, torn, broken, giving up, even when there was so much to live for, she almost killed the only people she had ever seen as true allies because of a petty rumor that Konata may have been lost.

_So, what'll it be, Kagami? It's your call. I'll just stand here and watch, if you don't mind._ Kagami's brain went dark in that moment, and she was no longer in control of her actions. She doubled over and fell on her side, twitching, reliving every last horrible moment of her life until then, because she was _stupid enough_ to believe in rumors and twisted truths. She was too tired to do anything in that moment, and she just cried herself to sleep, clutching an empty bottle.

**The next morning…**

Konata awoke expecting to be in her bed at the Republic of Miyuki, with Kagami by her side, but instead she found no bed, no Republic, no Kagami, and an incredible amount of pain in her leg and her face. Hiyori had fixed her leg up in a splint to minimize unnecessary movement while it's healing, but that apparently didn't stop it from moving at all through the night, because Konata could feel the rawness of her leg where the boards rubbed against her bare skin all night. "Owwww…" She whispered while trying to sit up against the wall behind her and rub her leg at the same time.

In fact, it wasn't only Kagami who was missing; she didn't see anyone around in the mill's generator room area. "Helooooo? Kagamiiiiiiin? Dr. Tamura? Anyone?" Not receiving an answer, she 'Hmphed' and tried to fall back to sleep again. She was just about to drift off as she heard a loud crash in the back of the mill. To her it sounded like glass shattering, but she couldn't be sure. She tried to dismiss it, but she cut her eyes back and forth to make sure nothing was coming. Just to do something, she looked at her Pip-Boy and got the date and time.

"1:30 in the afternoon on May 30, 2300. Wow, that was a great way to spend a birthday, chained up, beaten and knocked out. At least I was with Kagami…he h-ow." She said to herself as she once again settled in and attempted to fall asleep again.

"This is pointless." She said, two minutes later. "Gah, I can't even move!" She exclaimed as she waved her arms back and forth. Her tangent was cut short when she heard a loud thud by the storage room. The corner of the mill's office was blocking her view of the door, but she could tell from the noise that something had gotten the door open and fell through. She stared at the hallway as she heard it get up and trudge around the corner. Konata's jaw dropped when she saw it was Kagami, drunk by the looks of her, dragging herself out of the hallway. She spotted Konata and slowly moved towards her, losing her balance a couple times, but staying on her feet.

When Kagami got close enough to Konata, she fell face-first to the ground in front of her. That, however, didn't seem to faze her as she picked herself up, laid against the wall beside Konata and coughed. "Hey, Konata…I had some *cough* trouble back there."

Konata looked at her with a face that could only be described as hurt. "Kagami…I thought that we agreed never to drink…"

"Yeah? Did we? Cause I remember making a deal with myself…I like that one better…" Kagami barely got out, slumping over.

Konata shook her head. "Well, I guess it was just a matter of time anyway…" She said to an unconscious Kagami. _Jeez, how many bottles of that shit did you drink? Kagamin…_Konata thought as she tried her best to make Kagami look like she was comfortable in her restricted state. Just then, the mill doors opened, and Hiyori stepped in, talking with Tsukasa about radiation induced mutations or something.

"…So you see, if the gamma threshold is pressured for that long, It cracks, causing ghoulification." Hiyori explained to Tsukasa.

"Mmhmm…hey Dr. Hiyori, look! Konata's awake!" Tsukasa excitedly began. "It looks like Kagami's back too…" She said, rushing over to them. "Wait, what's that smell…" Tsukasa said, holding her nose as she got closer to Kagami.

Hiyori walked passed her, unfazed. "Tsukasa, that would be the purest form of alcohol available in the wasteland. Grade A whiskey is what that smell is. We use it all the time in the lab to disinfect things. I suppose that you could drink it. If it's your first time you could get dead drunk with not much of the stuff…" Hiyori explained as she walked over to Kagami and inspected her face.

"So Kagami drank…that…" Tsukasa said, willing herself to walk over to the others. She sat down beside Konata, looking over at Kagami. _Why sis?_ Tsukasa thought as she studied her sister's face, noticing a look of pain.

Hiyori laid Kagami back on the ground where she was before and turned to Konata. "How long has she been like this?" She asked, kneeling next to Kagami.

"Well, she wasn't here when I woke up, so it could be any amount of time really." Konata explained, distracted.

Hiyori stood up and put her hands on her hips, looking at Kagami. "Well, we have to get that stuff out of her. Give her some radaway; it should flush out her system." Tsukasa promptly went off to find Hiyori's bag, which had medical supplies and other useful things. "Okay, where did she come from when she came back?" Hiyori asked Konata.

"The supplies room. It might be jacked up, because I heard some crashes…" Konata said as she reached over and put Kagami's head on her lap, stroking her hair.

Hiyori nodded and went in that direction. When she got back there, she saw that the door was wide open. When she walked in, she couldn't tell exactly what was wrong, but there was a strange feeling that came over her. She took out a small flashlight that she used for emergencies, shining it on the walls. All was normal except for the open boxes, their contents spilled out all over the floor, as if someone was looking for something. When she looked at the wall to her left, she found what they were looking for. On the wall in big, bold letters was the phrase: **GETOUTOFMYHEAD **written multiple times, using different mediums. Hiyori slowly backed out and closed the door, swallowing hard. She went silently back to Konata.

"So, what did you find?" Konata asked.

"Don't worry. All that was back there was a broken bottle, probably from her falling over or something." Hiyori said as sweetly as possible. She knew that they would have to get out of that place as soon as possible, regardless of Konata's condition. At that time, Tsukasa returned with some radaway and Hiyori took Kagami outside to use it on her.

Konata sat there looking at the hole in the roof, a radioactive dust cloud swirling overhead. _I feel about like that cloud right now…_She thought to herself. She figured coming here was a bad idea, and she was right. That man in the armor had twisted Kagami and threw her back to where she was before Konami was born. She had tried to shoot herself on multiple occasions, leaving a different explanation each time, but Konata always got to her in time and stopped her. Kagami hadn't tried to do anything like that for at least five or six years, but that run-in with the Enclave stripped her down to her lowest points, and instead of having them one at a time, they came all at once. She would have to keep a vigilant eye on her.

Hiyori came back in a little while, an unaided Kagami following her, just barely on her feet. Everyone was silent as Kagami stumbled to the wall, using it to steady herself to get to Konata. She stopped immediately beside her and sat down cross-legged, her head hanging. No one said anything, but Konata grabbed Kagami's head and hugged it close to her chest, Kagami wrapping her arms around Konata as well. They sat like that for a long stretch of time until Tsukasa quietly spoke up.

"We have to eat…something…" She looked at Kagami and Konata, then back at Hiyori. Hiyori nodded and they went outside and left the others alone.

"What did you see, Kagamin?" Konata whispered to Kagami.

She didn't respond immediately, and when she did, it was so quiet that Konata almost couldn't hear it. "I saw…everyone…that I…that I…" She started sobbing silently to herself at that point, and Konata couldn't coax anything else out of her.

"Don't push yourself…it's okay…shhh..." Konata said, matching Kagami's volume. _Ha…She's usually the strong one. Even whenever we were young back in the vault, she was still a happened to you out in the wasteland Kagami? There is still so much you haven't told me, and Tsukasa too. I just want to be able to help you in times like this…_Kagami's sobbing soon began to fade, and she looked up into Konata's eyes. She was surprised, because usually Konata always had a stupid look on her face, but now, she looked mature and…beautiful.

Kagami shifted her weight to get a better vantage point on Konata and slowly kissed her, remembering why she fell in love with her in the first place. Konata was usually a joker, but she could easily be the best person in the world to come to with anything, because when she knew you were being serious, she would drop her act and listen. After a couple of minutes, they broke apart, returning to a full and hard embrace that would show to any onlookers that friends or lovers, whichever ones they were, it would be nearly impossible to separate them.

Feeling steadier on her feet, Kagami tenderly picked up Konata, minding her leg, and helped her get outside where they joined Tsukasa and Hiyori, admiring the sunset over the lonely horizon. They had a long way to go, and they were so very far away from alright, but there was a definite goal, which pushed them forward.


	4. Act 4

**A/N: This is one of my longest chapters, and doesn't include a continuation of The Legendary Quartet, in order to focus on events unfolding in good ol' Goodsprings. As always, enjoy!**

**ACT 4-CHAPTER 7: Preparations, Preparations.**

Mariko woke to find the sun shining in her eyes after a fitful and mostly sleepless night. She stretched and yawned, then crawled out of the tent halfway to see Konami sitting cross-legged on the wooden blocks by the fire pit. Konami had actually been awake for almost the entire night. She silently left the tent when she was sure Mariko was asleep. She sat there for hours, watching the diseased night sky turn from one sickly color to the next as the morning came, thinking about her failure to help the woman at the purifier, and in turn, her failure to protect Mariko. She knew that Mariko had to either stay behind closed doors for the rest of her life, or give up her final scraps of innocence to the wasteland. Konami hated it, but it was the cruel law of the land. While she knew it was the inevitable way of things, that didn't mean that she had to like it. In fact, she would fight it as long as she could.

Mariko fully exited the tent and walked over to Konami, then sat down alongside her.

"So how are you?" Konami said, not looking at Mariko for fear of losing it again.

Mariko moved a little closer to her sister. "I'm…I'll get over…it." She said quietly.

Konami put an arm around Mariko as she spoke. "Good…Mariko…I'll do everything I possibly can to stop that from happening ever again, okay?"

"Yeah, I know you will," Mariko began, standing up and turning back to Konami. "You promised that you would help me find Cherry today, so should we go now?"

Konami looked down at her Pip-Boy and then got up and stretched. "Yes, if we're going to do this today, we'd better get started. Let's go to that ridge." She said, starting off.

Luckily, the geckos hadn't begun to come back yet, and they made good time on the trip to the field separating them from the outcropping. On the way, Mariko noticed that the remains of the girl were gone, and offset from the path a bit was a mound of dirt and a crude wooden tombstone. She said nothing as they passed the hasty memorial. They sidestepped the gecko corpses as they walked to the path leading to the overlook. There wasn't much of a climb, and Konami went to the origin of the sound she heard and found Cherry asleep covered in blood and bits of flesh, surrounded by a few dead geckos. She chuckled as she went back to Mariko and told her what she saw. Mariko touch Konami's arm and went to her companion, trying to glean the gecko blood out of her fur, but not having much success.

"If you can get her to come over to the well, we can clean her properly, you know." Konami said to Mariko as she assisted in the attempt to wake Cherry, which didn't meet with much success. Eventually, Konami and Mariko worked together and just carried the big dog over to the well. They washed her off and sat against the small concrete trench that collected water and sighed.

Mariko perked up as she remembered something. "Oh yeah, Trudy wanted to meet you before you left the town, so we should probably get back there before the saloon closes."

"Okay, let's do it." Konami said as she got up and got Cherry out of the water.

They travelled back to the town at a leisurely pace and ended up getting back around seven, so they still had time to drop in at the saloon to see Trudy, but they didn't expect what met them inside in the least.

When Konami got to the door, she instinctively put her hand on her laser pistol because inside she heard what sounded like a fight.

"…Look, if you don't get Ringo out here soon, I'm going to get my friends, and we'll burn this place to the ground, got it?"

"Yeah…we'll keep that in mind. If you're not going to buy something, then get out."

Mariko went ahead past Konami into the saloon and ran into an angry looking man wearing a pre-war police uniform, even though he was clearly anything but.

"What the hell's your problem?" He growled at her when he bumped Mariko's shoulder, though not sticking around to get an answer, passing right by Konami on her way in.

_Grrr…what's that guy's problem? _She thought as she walked into the saloon's bar area, meeting the woman Mariko was talking about.

"Well, you've been causing quite a stir around here, glad I finally got to meet you. What'll it be?" Trudy said as she got things in order behind the bar.

Konami sat on one of the stools, and Mariko waved at Trudy and went into and adjacent room in the building, leaving them alone.

"I'm not really that thirsty tonight, thanks. I am wondering what was up with that guy that just left." She said, settling in.

Trudy sighed and leaned against the bar. "Well, it looks like our town got itself into some trouble. About a week ago, this trader callin' himself Ringo comes in talking about how he survived an attack somewhere. He also said that there were some bad men following him and he needed a place to hide, so we gave him a place to lay low. As it turns out, that man that you brushed by was the one Ringo was talking about."

"Well, what are you going to do?" Konami said, putting her chin in her hands.

Trudy took out a plate and got something ready for a wastelander that walked in. "Some of the others will probably stick up for Ringo if he asks for help, which he hasn't so far. To tell you the truth, I hope he hauls ass and takes the Powder Gangers with him."

"Powder Gangers?"

"Some chain gangs the NCR brought in to work on the rail lines. As it turns out, things don't normally go well when you give convicts dynamite and blasting powder. There was a big prison break a while back, and some of the escapees got together to cause more trouble, which we're having to deal with right now." She explained as she handed off the dish to the civilian.

"Oh, okay…where's Ringo now, by the way?" Konami asked, now rethinking her decision to decline the food.

"He's holed up at that gas station up the hill, past Mitchell's house." Trudy said, catching Konami's expression and taking out some squirrel on a stick and giving it to her.

"Thanks…What if I help Ringo?" She asked while taking a bite of the squirrel and laying a few caps on the counter.

Trudy locked up everything and began to make her way around the bar. "Heh, if you can get Ringo out of this mess, then you'll gain a pretty high standing in this town. I might even give you a discount. Of course if you help him, that won't leave you in a very good place with the Powder Gangers, and they have a lot of friends out there."

Konami got off the stool as she finished the food and walked behind Trudy. "Okay…thanks for that, Trudy, I guess I'll see about ending this." She said as she went outside with Mariko close behind.

"Don't mention it; I hope you do this town a justice." Trudy said as she locked up the saloon.

They went their separate ways as Mariko went with Trudy and Konami made her way to the gas station. She got to the building without a problem and was a bit surprised to find the door unlocked. She walked in to find a 10mm pistol being pointed at her.

"Hold it. Who are you? What do you want?" A man asked her.

"Look, it's okay. I know who you are and I want to help you." Konami said coolly.

"Sorry about the gun…you just caught me off guard is all…" Ringo said as he put away his weapon.

Konami walked into the place a little further, moving around the counter to her right. "It's fine. I know how this wasteland works. I'm guessing you know about Joe Cobb?" She asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not afraid of him. I heard he's afraid I'll shoot him from one of the windows if I see him, and I will if he gives me the chance, but his friends will be harder to deal with all at once." Ringo confirmed, going to the corner to check his supplies.

Konami moved up and down the tight shelves, not looking for anything in particular. "What were you going to do about the Powder Gangers?"

"I'll lay low as long as the town will let me. I don't have any chance against them on my own." Ringo said as he sat down beside his bedroll.

"Alright. You need a hired gun, and I'm available." She said, coming out from behind the last row of shelves, making off with some abraxo cleaner, a fission battery, and some cram buiscuts.

At that, Ringo looked up at Konami, pleased with her offer. "Well, I only have a handful of caps right now, but I will make sure the Crimson Caravan pays you back every cap."

Konami went to the door and leaned on it. "Okay, what now?"

Ringo got a look on his face as if he were working a hard math problem. "We'd probably ending up sharing the same grave if it were just the two of us, but if we were to get some others in the town on board with us…"

"What, you don't think I'm any good in a fight?" Konami said, on the defensive.

Ringo threw up his hands. "Well, you just got shot in the head the other day, and besides, we would have better odds anyway with a bigger group, right?"

"Fair enough. I guess I'll ask around town in the morning and see if I can get us some help." Konami said, leaving the gas station and starting out towards Doc Mitchell's house.

When she got to the door, she found it unlocked and went ahead on in, assuming he wouldn't mind. Her main intention was to spend the night there, but she realized that since he was a doctor, he might be able to help with the Powder Gangers. She poked her head in the first room on the right from the hallway and found him there. "Hey, Mitch. How are you?" She asked, entering the room where her real journey started, pulling up a chair to sit across from Mitchell.

"I'm alright. I didn't expect to see you back so soon, what can I do for you?" He said, leaning forward a bit, examining papers.

"Well, it's not so much something just for me as it is something for the town. A group of convicts called the Powder Gangers are going to attack and I wanted to see if there was anything you could do to help." Konami explained, watching the doctor's face for a response.

He sat up and put his papers on a desk beside him and sighed. "Seems like everywhere I go, it's always the same. Why can't folks just let things rest? Ah, I'm not much good in a fight with my bad leg, and I barely have any supplies as it is, but I'll do what I can." Mitchell yielded as he got out of the chair and went to his medical cabinet to see what he could find.

Konami suddenly remembered something about the gang that he should take into account. "Oh, they'll be using explosives. Do you have anything for more serious injuries like that?"

He stopped his searching for a moment, then rummaged with more intent. "I ain't got much…but I guess it'll do you more good out there than it will in here. Take these." He said as he handed her three stimpaks and the proper equipment to deal with severely injured organs and body parts.

"Thank you doc. If your door is still on its hinges after this gunfight, then you'll know we won." She said with a short wave as she carried the supplies back to her room and got to work organizing them, preparing for the fight ahead.

**The next day…**

Konami was on her way to Chet's store after having another talk with Trudy, convincing her to help in the gunfight. Trudy also told her of two other sources of help- Chet and a man by the name of Easy Pete who usually could be found out near the saloon. She decided to try and get Chet's help first, as he would have access to armor and weapons.

She entered the shop and he began his usual greeting before he realized it was her. "Oh, it's you. How is the Powder Ganger thing coming?"

She decided to cut to the chase. "Well, I need some supplies to fight them."

"Whoa, I didn't say I would help you so easily! That's at least a thousand cap investment right there." He said, crossing his arms.

Konami smiled and turned to leave. "Sure, fine, let them take over the town…I'm sure it'll be great for your business." She said, halfway out the door.

"Wait, wait, you made your point. I can provide some leather armor and ammo…just hope it's worth it. And, ah, I'll be guarding the store while you guys are out…can't lose _all _of my stock…you understand." He said desperately as she stepped back inside.

"Okay, good. I'm goanna come by later to pick up the stuff. Just keep the business first, my good man." Konami said sarcastically as she left. _So, on to Easy Pete. Seems like a nice guy…_She thought, quickly arriving at the saloon and seeing him at his usual place in a chair outside.

"Howdy." Pete said slowly as she sat down.

"Hello. So, why do they call you 'Easy Pete'?" She asked, settling in.

He took a breath, preparing for a story. "Was a prospector, 'till I decided to settle here to get away from the NCR. Now I just 'take it easy' and help out with the brahmin and bighorners."

"You said you came out here because of the NCR. What's up with them?"

"Oh, the NCR's got a lot of decent folk a part of 'em, it's just that they take land they want no matter what the locals think about it. Towns like this one here, or Primm up the road don't get to keep their independence long if they've got something the NCR wants. Still, they keep the Legion away, for the most part." He said, leaning forward, as if he was having a hard time seeing something past his large cowboy hat and white beard.

Konami sat back, putting her arms behind her chair. "I don't know a whole lot about the Legion. What's their deal?"

Pete looked up at her, his eyes seeming to have a slight glimmer. "They're slavers. Led by a guy who calls himself Caesar. They tried to take over the Hoover Dam a few years ago, but the NCR beat them back. They couldn't…or didn't…finish them off though. Thanks to the NCR, the Legion is getting stronger by the day, and they're going to try and go for the dam again. I think the NCR has a good chance of winning, but who knows. Lately we've been hearin' about Legionnaires on this side of the Colorado River, so keep a look out." He finished, breathing deeply.

"What's so important about the dam?" Konami asked, giving Pete time to catch his breath.

"Well, the dam supplies most of the power to New Vegas, and there's also all of that clean water in front of it. Pretty much whoever holds the dam controls the territory."

After a long pause, Konami remembered something to ask. "So…you said earlier that you were a prospector – like mining or something?"

He chuckled a bit and answered. "Nah, nah. Means searching through old buildings looking for working pre-war tech and such. Some folks just call it "salvaging" but I never liked the term. How see it is salvage means that it's broken, maybe near useless. I looked for the good stuff-guns, chems, spare parts; some good money in it. I did do a job something like mining, though. Had to use dynamite to clear the entrance of a vault that collapsed. Couldn't get to it even after that, though. I always wondered what was in there, but it probably doesn't matter now."

Konami perked up when she heard that. "Hey, do you have any more of that dynamite? It could help us against the Powder Gangers."

"Too dangerous. You might kill yourself and everyone else if I give it to you. Best to keep it buried, it's safer that way." He said, looking her in the eye to help his point along.

Konami sat there for a few seconds, then yielded to him. "Okay, never mind. Nice getting to know you." She said, getting up and walking into the saloon.

"Yup." He called after her, also getting up and going his own way.

By this time, the sun had begun to set, and Konami decided that the Powder Gangers would be attacking the next day. She went into the saloon to find Mariko and get her ready for the fight ahead. As soon as she opened the door, she was tackled by Cherry, who acted like she hadn't seen her in years. "Yeah…ugh, I like you too, just get off, please!" Konami choked out while trying to get the large dog off of her.

When she finally got up, she saw Mariko leaning against one of the card tables in the saloon, laughing and holding her side.

"Well, I'm glad to see you too, thanks." Konami said as she walked over to Mariko, waiting for her to calm down.

"Sorry, sis…the look on your face…" She said between giggles. "Anyway, have you managed to get help from anyone around here?"

Konami sat in one of the chairs around the table, and Mariko did the same. "Well, we have a bit of medical help from Doc Mitchell and I convinced Chet to provide us with better armor and extra ammo. I talked to Easy Pete about his dynamite, but he wouldn't come up off of it, so I let it go. All in all, I think we'll be ready when they come."

Outside they heard a loud bang, followed by someone snickering and running off. Konami was about to say something else, but Mariko quickly stood up and put a finger to her lips to signal her silence. Konami closed her mouth and nodded, noticing Mariko intensely staring at the saloon door. Mariko slowly edged over and put her ear on the door, listening for any other noises outside. She motioned for Konami to come to her and opened the door.

When Konami saw what the situation was, a shadow fell over her face and she turned to Mariko, trying to say something but not getting out any sound. Mariko lightly pushed her sister out of the way and fully opened the door, revealing the source of the noise. One of the Goodsprings citizens that made regular runs to the water well was nailed by his shirt to one of the posts outside the saloon, his state made obvious by multiple stab wounds in his chest. A small note was also attached to the post. When she saw this, Mariko's eyes widened and she walked outside and yanked the note away from the nail, reading it aloud.

"**TOMORROW**"

She dropped the paper and laughed a little. "Okay…tomorrow, then…" Her hands quickly curled into balls and she looked down at her feet. "Come on then…you bastards…"

Konami put a hand on Mariko's arm and pulled her back into the saloon as Trudy came around the corner where the actual bar was. Konami pointed outside and moved Mariko out of Trudy's way. When the realization finally hit her, she slammed her fist into the doorframe, cursing herself and the Powder Gangers alike. After a second or two, she straightened back up and picked three townspeople out of the group still in the saloon at that hour, instructing them to make a hasty grave for the first casualty of war. After the gravediggers carried the poor man away, Trudy noticed the ripped paper laying on the ground in the remaining blood puddle. She could make out the message despite the stains, and when she read it, she crumpled up the paper and went back into the saloon, determined to finish the conflict as painfully for the Powder Gangers as possible.

**CHAPTER 8: Ghost Town Gunfight**

"So, did you get us some backup?" Ringo asked as Konami walked through the door to the ancient gas station.

"Yeah, I think we have all the help we're going to get. The Powder Gangers aren't going to wait around anymore, Ringo. They should be here in an hour or two, so are you ready?" Konami counter-asked.

"I hope. Let's do this." He said as he held up a weak thumbs-up.

Konami nodded and turned to the door just as it flew open and Mariko rushed in, leaving it ajar. "It's time to look alive, guys, The Powder Gangers are right on us! We only have time to get some people into place before they come."

Ringo stepped up and pulled out his revolver, ready for a fight at any second. "How many are there?" He asked.

"I think there are six in all, and they look really mean…"

Konami moved around Mariko and went through the doorway into the early-morning light. "Don't worry, we can easily handle six punks."

Mariko nodded and pulled out her rifle. "I'll be set up near the store…let's hope the gang doesn't get that far." She said as the group of three walked out of the building, all weapons at the ready. Before dawn, Chet had outfitted the townspeople that would be assisting them in the fight, and Konami even managed to talk a few extra power cells out of him. Mariko broke off of the formation as they neared Chet's shop, and Ringo steadied himself on a large crate a bit further up. Konami passed two other fighters along the way, and she finally decided to hunker down in an old wagon for cover in the first line of defense alongside Trudy. She could see the silhouettes of the Powder Gangers coming down the winding road from the southeast, which would be the defenders' left.

Trudy turned to the people along the line and shouted a few encouraging words before the first pistol shot rang out, missing the first line and burying itself in Ringo's box. He fired in response, and soon enough the air around the defenders was tainted with hanging gun smoke and laser exhaust. The Gangers had made enough headway that the three equipped with melee weapons began running in an erratic pattern around the first line, one with a baseball bat smashing part of the box Ringo was behind, forcing him out in the open. One of the third line defenders jumped over the remains of the box and hit the attacker in the skull with the handle of his revolver, knocking him out cold. Cherry took the opportunity and finished him off quickly.

Konami leaned over the side of the wagon and fired at a Ganger, easily disintegrating his body because of the crude armor he had which consisted of brahminhide shorts and a few leather straps across his bare chest. She would have almost felt sorry for him if it weren't for the stick of dynamite he was about to throw, which fell and exploded to the side, injuring the leader of the assault, Joe Cobb. Konami crouched back down and looked away from the road, surveying the damages done. One of the Powder Gangers with a shovel, of all things, overpowered the third line guardsman and decapitated him with the digging end of the tool. Mariko turned just in time to see the event and reacted in an instinctual way, unloading the remains of her magazine into the Ganger, paying him back. She looked back to the battle and saw Joe Cobb limping off in the opposite direction and leaped out of her cover to pursue him across the town.

The remaining Powder Gangers looked at each other and followed Cobb around the side of a home across the road from the defenders. Konami froze and looked down at Trudy, who took a shot in the shoulder. Turning back to the direction Mariko went; she gave Trudy one of her stimpaks and ran after the group, Cherry tailing her.

Strangely, she didn't hear any gunshots, or screams for that matter. _I don't like where this is going…_She thought as she passed a large derelict travel trailer. She stopped when she noticed that Ringo was also with her, signaling for him to crouch down to avoid making too much noise. She did the same and stopped behind the corner of the mass of metal, peeking around and listening hard to make sure she heard right.

Apparently the Gangers had set up a small trick, expecting someone to follow them. The two that followed Cobb were holding Mariko by her arms between them. At this point, they were away from the town and out of Konami's earshot. She spotted a sizeable bush a good twenty feet away, and practically speed-crawled her way there as quietly as possible. Once she got closer, she was able to overhear the Gangers' conversation.

"So what do we do now, Cobb?" The first Ganger asked.

"We can use her against the town. She's not Ringo…but I think this turned into something else when they ignored us. We need to get them deep, and I think she's the best lead we've had on them since this started. Her sister was there helping them, I think. She seems like the type who can think her way out of a situation, so keep this little thing locked up tight back at the base until we figure out just what to do with her." Joe Cobb responded dryly.

Konami wondered why Mariko hadn't had any objections yet, and when she looked through a hole in the scraggly plant, she saw that Mariko was knocked unconscious, supposedly by the men when they surprised her.

"Look, we need to get out of here fast...I think the people we left in the town are regrouping. Come on, we have a camp set up in Primm, we can…" Cobb continued, again out of earshot, but Konami had heard enough anyway. She heard them drag her sister away and just sat there in a somewhat frozen state, looking at her gloved hands, not moving for a long while.

She didn't notice when Ringo tried to shake her out of it, and his frantic calls of, "There's still time…" and "We can stop them now…" fell on unhearing ears.

When he realized his efforts were in vain, he sat beside her, waiting. After what seemed like an eternity to him, she finally moved and dropped her arms to her sides, tilting her head up, viewing the yellow-tinted sky with thoughtless eyes.

"She's…gone…now…" Konami slowly worked through. "After all she went through…after all _I_ went through…all of that did nothing…"

Ringo attempted to calm her a bit. "No, she's not gone for good…we can still find her. Cobb said that they would take her to the Powder Ganger base in…Primm. I…well, there's hope. Come on." He said as he stood up and helped her on her feet.

"But, she's not here. Every second she isn't here is a victory to them! Besides that, they're all convicts who were put in the system for who the hell knows what. Do you have any idea what they'll do to her…" Konami continued, slipping out of Ringo's grasp and back down onto the dusty earth. She didn't shed any tears, but she felt as if she would rather do that than feel what had come over her then.

Ringo just picked her up and carried her toward the others. After the dust from the fight had died down, the sun was reaching the midpoint of the sky, and a few non-combat oriented civilians came out of their homes to help give all of the dead proper burials. As Konami began to gain a little bit of her awareness back, she walked the rest of the way to the town past the house they went around before, seeing Trudy ordering the cleanup crew around, even with her injuries.

Doc Mitchell had also come down from his house to see if there was anything he could do, going from person to person, offering mental and physical help. He tried to get Konami's attention, but she disregarded his greeting and walked directly to Trudy.

"Which way is Primm?" She asked, no doubt with a vicious look in her eye.

Trudy was a bit surprised at Konami's face, but she answered all the same. "Well…the safest way is to take the freeway going southeast. Primm is the town with the old roller coaster, can't miss it. Why do you want to go there all of a sudden?"

Konami was about to respond when Ringo touched her arm and spoke for her. "Joe Cobb and a couple other Powder Gangers escaped and headed that way. We heard them talking, and decided to go after them."

After studying Konami's face for a few seconds, Trudy waved them away and turned back towards the bloodstained road. "Just try not to get yourselves killed, okay?" She said, sensing the true reason for their journey.

Konami turned and stared at Ringo with an expressionless face. He may have interpreted it as anger, or giving up, but definitely nothing positive. Even though the day had grown old, and the sun had fallen behind the hills, Konami walked southeast with Ringo, following the freeway like Trudy said, having nothing but a single desire:

To meet with Joe Cobb.


	5. Act 5

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**A/N: Hey, guys. I decided to make two halves of an Act dedicated to the veterans to atone for not adding them in the last Act. **

**ACT 5: CHAPTER 9: New Challengers**

Kagami sat solemnly with her back resting against one of the large boulders that ringed the group's makeshift camp. The warmth of the crackling fire was welcoming against the chilling night air. She gazed up at a few flickering stars in the sky, not really thinking anything of it, only staring for something to do. She kept her hands busy as well, unloading and reloading the power cell of her laser pistol. Tsukasa was lightly snoring a few feet to her right, and Hiyori had taken Konata to a small alcove that was created from a few overhanging ledges of rock, checking her leg to make sure it was still in its socket. Kagami sighed and looked at her Pip-Boy, checking the date and time. _It's 11:47, on June6th, 2300. I can't believe it's been a week since we left that place…nothing good came out of that…_She thought as Hiyori and a limping Konata came back over to the fire.

"Well, it looks like your leg is actually doing better than before we left, Konata," Hiyori began, crossing her arms. "Just don't do any acrobatic tricks and I think you'll be fine…"

Konata looked up at her with a pouting look. "You _think_…oh well, it doesn't hurt that bad if I'm leaning on my Kagamin~" She said as she sat beside Kagami.

Hiyori shook her head slightly and addressed Kagami. "So how are you holding up? You hardly talked at all today." She carefully asked, knowing Kagami's unsteady state.

Kagami waited for a few seconds to speak, reloading her pistol a few more times, then stopping to look at Hiyori. "Believe it or not, I'm feeling better…my headaches have gotten a bit more manageable, but I had a migraine the whole day, so that's the reason for my silence." She said matter-of-factly as she went back to her diversion.

Everyone was quiet for a while after that, no sound being heard except the crackling of the fire and Tsukasa sleeping. Hiyori nodded at Kagami and got up to remove a few previously captured lizards from a spit overhanging the fire, offering some of the food to Konata who accepted it and Kagami who didn't.

Even though there was a slight loss of direction in the desert because of their Pip-Boys' inability to make a reliable map of the area, the group has gotten closer their goal in Nevada, having crossed over into Arizona shortly before setting up camp at the ring of rocks. As Konata and Hiyori finished the hasty meal, they bedded down. They only had two sleeping bags, so Konata shared one with Kagami and Tsukasa paired with Hiyori. Kagami took off her outer armor and got into the sleeping bag with Konata, who was instantly asleep, but she laid awake for an hour or two after that until she finally fell into a shallow, light doze.

She was only granted a few hours of something in between being awake and asleep when she was easily awoken by the sound of men's voices. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but she knew what she had to do. She exited the sleeping bag as silently as possible and re-clasped the leather shoulder pads and chest piece with one hand while pulling on her heavy boots with the other. When this was done, she was about to tighten the laser pistol's holster around her waist when she heard a tired groan and saw Konata writhe around in the sleeping bag and sit up, making a puzzled 'Humph'.

"Ka…ga…mi…is that you?" Konata asked sleepily, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Konata, go back to sleep. I'm going to go check something out, okay?" Kagami asked, rubbing her hand on the boulder next to her.

Konata began to come out of her drowsiness, narrowing her eyes and staring at Kagami. "I can't let you go off alone…you know that."

Kagami rubbed the back of her neck and turned to the fire, leaning on the rock. "Look, I know you don't trust me much after what happened at Carbon…but I can promise you that I've…I'll…I won't leave you alone like that." After a long pause Kagami stared into the fire and then returned Konata's look. "Will you be able to make it?"

Konata smiled and held out her hand. Kagami sighed and helped her get up, letting Konata use her as a crutch. Kagami looked back and saw Hiyori and Tsukasa jumbled together inside the sleeping bag. _What…are they? No…I don't think Tsukasa or Dr. Tamura are like that…but then again…_She thought as she helped Konata get around the rocks safely. The camp was on a hill, so they made their way down slowly and carefully.

"So, do you think something's going on between them?" Konata asked Kagami with a nudge and a wink.

"What? I don't know…I haven't ever seen them _together_ before, but…wait, have you?" Kagami answered with a question as she avoided a large cactus leaf.

Konata faintly shuddered against Kagami's side. "Well, no…but they're always with each other, no matter what's going on. They kind of remind me of us starting out." She said, sobering up a bit from her previous excitement.

Kagami shook her head to get out a particularly strange image and slowed to a stop to explain some things. "Could we…get off of that subject for now? If you were wondering why we're out here, I thought I heard some men talking earlier. It was faint, but I know it was there. There were at least four distinct voices that I heard, and they were heading west, the direction we're going."

Konata nodded and held Kagami's arm a little tighter. She almost fell down when Kagami suddenly stopped and crouched behind a large rock, putting a finger to her lips.

"…this post?" "There were reports of several…south and east…Caesar's orders." "Didn't we pass a camp earlier?"

Kagami turned and peeked over the rock, seeing two groups of four men a long way up the road to their right. She couldn't see what they were wearing clearly, but it wasn't exactly normal. It looked like they switched directions, one group of four heading their direction and the other four holding their position.

"Kagami, we have to warn Tsukasa and Dr. Tamura." Konata whispered while scooting backwards up the hill a bit to get better footing. Kagami just picked her up and carried her up the slope. _Pleasedon'tseeusPleasedon'tseeusPleasedon'tseeus…_She franticly thought as she scampered around the edge of one of the boulders around the camp, dropping Konata and releasing a deep breath, gasping for a few seconds.

Hiyori had woken up shortly after Konata and Kagami had left the camp, and she had been studying Tsukasa's face, twirling some of her hair around her finger. She was thinking about kissing her when Kagami and Konata tore around the corner. She squealed and got out a short yell when Konata leaped on her, trying to cover her mouth. All of this commotion woke Tsukasa who was smashed by the flying bluenette's knees which went into her side. As a result, Konata, Tsukasa, and Hiyori all ended up intertwined like a knot. Kagami would have found this funny, if it weren't for half of the strange men from earlier pulsing around the sides of the boulder she was behind, alerted by the noise.

They didn't seem to see her, though, and she was able to get a good look at their clothing. Three of them wore what she figured to be standard armor, with a black, red-striped leather chestpiece and helmet, and what looked like a leather skirt. The fourth soldier had the same chestplate with heavier shoulder plating, a large leather strap running across his torso, holding a large curved machete, shin plating, and a helmet that made his head look like a slicked back peacock with red, black, and white feathers.

Hiyori was the first there to realize what was happening immediately, and she pushed Konata off of her to sprint to a bag carrying her combat supplies. She quickly pulled out a weathered 10mm pistol, but one of the men was already on top of her, slashing at her with a short blade, knocking the gun out of her hands.

When Hiyori pushed Konata off, she fell on her side and skidded to her right, knocking another charging soldier off balance, inadvertently causing him to fall over, sprawling out on the sloped ground leading away from the campsite. He tried to flip himself back on his feet but Konata was too fast for him and she flew in his direction, sending both of them rolling down the hill.

Kagami saw that she had the element of surprise and drew her laser pistol, easily disintegrating the soldier next to the one with the feathered helmet. The heavier troop spun around before she could shoot again and smashed the side of her face with his forearm, making her turn and stumble, her arms dangling. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore her swelling eye as she threw the laser pistol at the man, expecting him to catch it and leave at least one of his sides open. He did, and she twirled around, drawing a combat knife from her boot and plunging it into his thigh. He yelled not in pain, but in anger as he grabbed up her torso in a bear hug and threw her to his left, her stomach smashing into an outcropping of rock, causing her to hack and send some blood onto the stone.

The first man recovered quickly from his failed attempt to gut Hiyori and tried again with the same slice, but she saw it coming and faked to the left, making him try to correct and leaving him open to a kick in the neck, incapacitating him.

Konata recovered from the fall first, dragging herself out from under the unconscious soldier who apparently hit his head on a rock during the trip down. She tried to get up the slope, but her leg made it difficult. She took it one step at a time, eventually resorting to just dragging herself.

The heavy trooper pulled the combat knife out of his leg, grunting and quickly wrapping the wound with a bit of fabric he kept for such a situation. You don't get to become a Decanus in Caesar's Legion without being prepared. He scanned the fight, watching one of the recruits get pushed over a hill and another have his windpipe squarely kicked, ending his part in the battle. The girl he tossed wasn't looking too good, just kind of lying there with a trail of blood running out of her mouth. Another one with the same hair color was sitting off to the side, a stupid look on her face. She wasn't much of a treat at the moment, but he would watch her. The girl that gave the Recruit the boot was staring at him like he was the insane one.

"Hey, don't just stand there. Come at me if you are willing to taste the wrath of Caesar's elite-" He began as she accepted his offer and ran at him, ducking under his arm as he swung at her and following up with a jab to the middle of his back, where his armor was weaker. Her attack wasn't completely ineffective, but it wasn't enough to stop his assault as he kicked backwards and struck her kneecap, almost breaking her leg. She fell backwards with a shout and realized she was completely defenseless against the soldier while she was like that.

He laughed and grabbed her leg, dragging her closer to him. _Oh God…what can I do…I'm trapped! Aghhh…_"NOOO!" She screamed as he got ready to crush her skull with his foot. Just before he stomped, a sizeable rock hit him in the side of the head, knocking him off balance and making him stagger away. Hiyori scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her knee and looking to see who threw the rock. Tsukasa looked at her with her mouth open and her eyes wide, her fists clenched in front of her.

Once the Decanus regained his composure, he saw who it was and began to laugh, walking towards her. "Hahaha…you little shit…you should have stayed in the corner." He said as he got closer. Hiyori attempted to kick him, but her knee stopped her from doing anything intricate, and he easily caught her foot and flipped her. Tsukasa squeaked and started edging backwards, towards the hill Konata and the other soldier went over. The heavy kicked up his speed and got to her before she could escape, picking her up by the neck. "Know. Your. Fucking. Place!" He said, squeezing harder with each word, darkening her vision until she couldn't take it anymore and passed out.

**CHAPTER 10: Pain**

**_"Oh, Tsukasa, come on. I'm going to Konata's room, and if you want to pout then you don't have to come." Onee-chan said, sticking her tongue out at me. She can be so mean sometimes! All I wanted to do was help her make a card for Kona-chan but she didn't want me to._**

**_"No, don't go without me, please! I'll be good I promise! Look, I got something…" I pleaded with her. Kona-chan was having her 10_****_th_****_ birthday in a couple days, and sis wanted to make extra sure she got her something she would like, which was hard in this Vault. I don't know anything about the pre-war things she's into, but I try my best to be a good friend, and onee-chan always congratulated me for it. She says we get along better than sisters, even though we don't have that much in common. I found something I thought Kona-chan would like in dad's old things. It's kind of funny that he liked that kind of stuff._**

**_"An old dungeon game on a holodisk…looks like it has good condition…I think you may have found our gift, Tsukasa." Onee-chan said, patting my head. She can be mean, but she can be really nice, too. Kona-chan has a special word she calls her, but I can't remember it now. We chatted as we left the room to go meet Kona-chan. For some reason, it feels like I've been here before, but it's different. As onee-chan walked in front of me, she started slowing down and she dropped the holodisk and it broke…in slow-motion? I looked down and saw red dots in front of her. She slowly turned around, and when she did, I fell down, but it didn't hurt. She had a big hole in her middle and…her face was…so wrong…her eyes were either black or just…gone…Kona-chan came from behind me and touched onee-chan and she fell, and when she hit the ground the silver walls of the hallway peeled away, and it looked all old and rusty. The floor started to glow a little bit, and Kona-chan and onee-chan were gone. Wait! Onee-chan was coming around the corner over there, I can tell because of her hair…but her clothes are missing…and she looks worse than before…She just screamed at me, and I screamed back. She ran over to me and, SHE'S TRYING TO EAT ME! NOOOOO! IT HURTS! STOOOOOP!_**

**_…_**

**_…_**

**_…Tsukasa…_**

**_…_**_Tsukasa__**…...**_

…"Tsukasa!"…

A familiar voice called over a sort of white noise in her head. What did that mean? Did it have any significance? The voice called again, but she couldn't tell who it was, even though she had heard it before.

"S-stop…please…I love you…why are you doing that to me? It hurts…" Tsukasa whispered as the mystery voice cheered in victory and told someone to do something, but she couldn't tell what she said then. She decided to try and open her eyes, but found that she could only open one. That wasn't really a problem, though. The sun was behind the person over her, so she still couldn't see who it was, but she noticed that it was raining on her face…no, the other person was crying. She couldn't really feel anything, it distressed her, and her body shook. Wait…when she shook, she didn't feel good at all…she willed herself to look down. "Oh…no…"

She had many wounds on her body, her right arm had six cuts across it, all of them down through her muscle. There was a long gash on the right side of her chest from the bottom of her breast to her hip, and two horizontal cuts on her left side in the same area. Her left leg also looked like a dog had been chewing on it for a while. It looked to her like someone was going to chop her up into little pieces, but they stopped for some reason. None of the cuts were deep enough to be life-threatening by themselves, but she just noticed the warm dampness of the sand below her, not needing to look because she knew very well what it was.

She felt hair on the right side of her face, the side she couldn't see from. She tried her best to direct her left eye that direction, but realized that she couldn't move her neck either.

"Oh God…Tsukasa…I'm sorry…" That voice she could tell was Hiyori. Dr. Hiyori was always so nice to her. Tsukasa was starting to think that she liked her…more than a friend could. She had tried to be a good assistant to Hiyori, and she thought she did a good job.

She heard someone pacing behind her…hard to hear over the dreadful white noise…but she thought it was probably Kagami. There wasn't much she could say about her sister that wasn't already obvious or said before, but she felt like she needed to get _something_ across…something greater than love.

She concluded that Konata was to her left. She saved Konata's life once. Konata was shot by turrets, and she jumped in and got the bullets out. Those were the days…she didn't really have to worry about any of…_this_…because she had someone there all the time. Now, she could feel the life being drained from her-"Ahhhhgh…" She whimpered as someone wrapped up her maimed leg.

She breathed short, feverish gulps of air as someone, Hiyori, she was guessing, wrapped her arm the same way.

"Tsukasa…I'm so sorry. Just try not to die, please!" Hiyori yelled as she messed with something technical. "Kagami, thanks for letting me use your laser pistol."

"Yeah…for Tsu…Tsukasa…"

Tsukasa heard an electrical 'Bzzzt' and saw a red flash of light. "Look, Tsukasa, I recalibrated Kagami's laser pistol to soot out a constant beam of less concentrated energy to cauterize your major wounds. This is going to hurt a lot…I'm so sorry…" Hiyori mused, trying to make it sound bette-

**GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! WHYYYYY?**

She blacked out once again, but this time had no dreams, only pain.

BZZZCHCHCZZZCHCZHCHCHCZZZZCHCHCHCHZZZZZ

When Tsukasa woke again, she could smell her own burnt flesh. She wondered if that helped, or made it worse. She looked down, and she got her answer. There were browned streaks where the large gashes had been on her sides, and they hurt a lot, but she took that as a good sign. While she was out, Hiyori also must have done the same to her arm and leg, because she was feeling the same sensation both places.

She felt like she should sit up, but her body was still under the influence of her sub-sleep state and she couldn't will herself to move. In fact, she could barely breathe. Konata understood what she was trying to do and put a rolled up sleeping bag behind her. Now that she was upright, she could see around the former camp. There were five bodies in sight, and they all belonged to those scary soldiers. The area was covered with blood…there wasn't a spot of dry land in her range of sight, unless you counted the dried spatter on the boulders. Other than the dead, the living didn't look too good either. Hiyori had her knee wrapped up, and there was a bandage on her head. She was also drenched in blood, but Tsukasa assumed it was hers. Konata had her right shoulder down to her forearm covered in bandages. Kagami didn't look too bad, except that when she coughed, her eyes widened and she turned around…whatever that meant.

"You're probably wondering what happened…well, I guess we'll start from when you were grabbed by the big guy." Konata said, preparing to fill her in.

.


	6. Act 6

**ACT 6: CHAPTER 11: Pursuit**

The desert sun was still high in the sky when Konami left Goodsprings, with Ringo in tow. She hadn't slowed down much, but she managed to get some extra supplies from Trudy before leaving for Primm. They were a couple miles away from the town when they came up over a dip in the road to see the hump of the broken down roller coaster.

"Looks like we might be getting there pretty soon…" Ringo said to an oblivious Konami.

The road curved east and came to a crossroads. There was an old and rusted green road sign pointing south to Primm, east to a place called 'Jean' (all she could see of that was a decrepit shack), and north to Vegas. Konami looked down and marked the location on her Pip-Boy to help get back to this point later. She was about to head towards Primm when she heard yelling and gunshots from behind the shack. She quickly motioned for Ringo to follow her and keep quiet while she got low and hid next to the building.

She snuck around the left to a large boulder poking out of the sand, where she had a better vantage point. Konami quickly saw that the two men shooting had on Powder Ganger outfits and were apparently guarding the area against a few bloatflies (baby-size mutated flies that have the ability to shoot poisonous spines from their abdomen).

Somehow, the flies were winning, and Konami realized that since these were Powder Gangers, they might have seen her sister. She watched the battle unfold a while, and when one of the men fell with ten or so spines in his chest, she decided to do something.

Konami instructed Ringo to circle to the left and cut off the Ganger's escape if he tried anything, moving up the middle herself. She signaled for Ringo to jump in, and she attacked along with him, reducing one bloatfly to ashes and burning holes in another while he took out the third with his shotgun. The remaining Powder Ganger looked about with a confused look on his face when he turned just in time to see Ringo and Konami circling towards him with their weapons at the ready.

He placed his .357 revolver on the ground and held his arm which had a spine in it. "Heh…you must be the girl Cobb was talkin' about. Smooth shooting, I've got to admit. Primm's right up that way," He said, pointing south. "The kid's waiting for you. I didn't touch her, but some of these guys…you'd better hurry if you want to get her back in one piece. _Be careful._ They have the town covered in guards."

Konami nodded and picked up his gun. She looked it over a bit, then hauled back and threw it as far as she could in the opposite direction. He looked back at where it landed, then at her, nodding back. He would take a little walk over death any day.

Looking to the south, Konami and Ringo passed the ruins of a small plane which Konami assumed had something to do with the shack on the rocks to her right, but there wasn't enough time to investigate. Moving through the skeleton of an old home, they got back to the road which would be easy to follow once it got dark. Soon, Konami spotted an old army cargo truck that they could rest on, but just as she was about to climb into the back, the crack of a gun was heard, and a bullet tore through the old metal barricade around the bed of the truck. Konami leaped away from the vehicle as she checked herself for bullet wounds, finding none. She quickly dove behind one of the truck's huge wheels with Ringo close behind as soon as a hail of bullets assaulted the back of the shell.

She peeked out from beside the wheel and saw a few Powder Gangers running towards them from between an ancient travel trailer and the remains of a large tanker truck up the road a bit, firing pistols in her direction. She stayed exposed for a second too long and a bullet found a place in her left shoulder.

"Damn!" She shouted, grabbing at her arm. "Why the hell were they-" She began, before feeling an explosion strong enough to rock the cargo truck. She slowly looked out from behind the wheel after a few seconds, seeing a few blackened circles around where the Powder Gangers _were_. She realized that something must have set off the traps they set up around their camps. Just about that time, a familiar mass of metal rolled out from around a large hill, finishing off one of the Gangers that was only thrown by the explosion.

Deeming it safe for now, Konami walked over to Victor with Ringo watching their backs.

"You've got to be more careful out here. It's dangerous, y' know." The bot said to her as she approached.

She clutched her arm and turned a bit. "What are you doing out here, Victor? Don't tell me you followed me…"

He fidgeted. "Well…I'm headin' in the same direction you are, and I saw you were in a pinch, so I decided to help you out."

"Well, don't. I can take care of myself." Konami said, trying to ignore the blood dripping off her arm.

Victor seemed to notice her wound, but said nothing about it. "Of course you can. I just hope that someday you can return the favor." He said, rolling off in the _opposite_ direction.

Konami shook her head and found a rock to sit on. She winced as she unbuckled her left glove and arm guard and rolled up her sleeve. "Damn…it…" She growled as Ringo came over after seeing Victor off. The bullet must have punctured an artery or something, because her arm was beginning to lose a dangerous amount of blood.

"Hey, I have one of the doctor's bags Mitchell gave to us back there. We need to get that fixed up." He said, eyeing her shoulder.

She glanced away from him. "We don't have any time to waste because of me. We need to keep moving."

Ringo moved back into her sight and looked her in the eye. "If you keep losing blood like that, you aren't going anywhere. Let me at least wrap it." He said, setting the bag down next to her and rooting through it.

She said nothing, but let him do as he would, the bandages keeping most of the blood in her arm. The bullet would have to remain in her arm until she could get help from a professional.

Soon enough, they were back on the road and walking the couple of miles left to Primm. After about a mile and a half of walking, they came up on a large rift in the road ahead, carving through the road and curving all the way back around a billboard to their left. Konami guessed this may have been the work of a couple smaller bombs, or a plane crashing. Regardless of the reason, the area was blanketed in light radiation, and a number of radroaches (mutated cockroaches the size of dachshunds) had taken up residence in the husk of a car in a puddle of irradiated goop in the large ditch.

One of the creatures looked up at Konami and Ringo and made a sound that reminded her of rustling plastic bags and a fire crackling. When the roach finished its 'call to arms', at least three more crawled up out of the liquid and leaped at them.

Konami sidestepped to avoid the first one and easily caught it, tearing off its oversized abdomen. With one down, she whipped out her laser pistol and shot at one in the air, missing it. The roach fell a bit short and latched onto her boot, grinding on it with its 'teeth', which were actually mandibles with a comb-like instrument in between. She grunted and kicked it off, managing to land a few shots on it, reducing it to ashes.

Ringo pulled out a stick of dynamite he got off of one of the Powder Gangers from earlier and lit it, flinging it towards the hole the radroaches came from. "Let's go!" He said to Konami as he threw it and ducked behind the billboard on the side of the road.

Once the dust settled, they regained their composure and went on their way. The dynamite blast had also killed a few marauding geckos that decided to join the party at the wrong time. With their current opposition finished, it was a straight shot to Primm. When they finally made it within range of the town, they realized it would be…difficult to get in. The actual town was on the left side of the road, but it was walled off with huge metal bars and concrete pillars. Konami saw the NCR flag flapping over to the right side of the road outside a base camp of sorts. Almost as soon as Konami realized it was an NCR camp, a soldier with tan clothing and a desert camo marine helmet quickly ran to them.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing here? Don't you know Primm is off limits?" He called as he got within normal speaking range.

Konami crossed her arms and looked intently at the soldier. "What's going on in Primm?"

"Some convicts from the prison up the road escaped and took over the town. Everyone inside is either dead or in hiding. Not only that, but there are also two tribes of raiders causing trouble in the area as well. You'd be safer going back the direction you came." He explained in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Wait, what about the people inside the town? Isn't it your job to protect them?" Konami asked poisonously.

The soldier began to get a little impatient. "We'd love to, but they don't fall under NCR jurisdiction. Even if they did, we're in no shape to protect them, anyway."

"What's stopping you?"

"We don't have the manpower or equipment to take out the convicts. Look, if you want to help that much, go talk to Lieutenant Hayes up the road at base camp. Just stay on the _west_ side of the overpass if you don't want to get shot." He said, motioning with his hands this way and that, and then turning around to return to camp.

Konami nodded toward Ringo and they walked up the hill to get to the NCR camp. The entrance was built around the guardrail of a branch of the main highway, made out of chunks and sheets of scrap metal with a few fire barrels around for light. The rest was part of Primm, except with only a few buildings, and all of them were in much worse condition than the town where people were living, until now. Konami and Ringo walked through an intersection devoid of activity and past a pre-war roadblock before they made it to the actual camp, a couple large NCR tents.

Outside, there were a few picnic tables and an NCR trooper cooking something on a grate over a fire barrel. Konami greeted him and went inside the Lieutenant's tent.

He was sitting at a table with another NCR trooper, and when she entered, he greeted her nonchalantly. "I'm Lieutenant Hayes of New California Republic army, 5th battalion, 1st company. What's your business?"

"What are you doing here?" Konami asked.

He looked up toward the top of the tent and sighed. "We were sent here to hold back the tide of convicts from the correctional facility…as you can probably tell, it's not the kind of job we should be doing."

"Well, why is this mission a problem?"

He stood up and walked around behind the table, leaning on it. "It's not the mission that's the problem, it's the supplies and support. Those convicts are more capable then our intel suggested. I've been trying to get reinforcements and ammo for the past few days…but shit, things have been slow."

Konami rubbed her arm and shook her head. "…Tell me about the correctional facility."

"Well…most people call it the 'NCRCF', that's NCR Correctional Facility. A little while ago, the convicts there broke loose, killing the guards and anyone else who was unlucky enough to meet up with them. They've been ransacking the area and causing general trouble since then."

She looked around a bit, then said 'Thanks' and left. _That didn't help me at all…I don't give a damn about where they came from-wait! Maybe Joe Cobb took Mariko there…I need to make sure she's not here, though…_She thought as she walked out of the tent.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Ringo asked when her when he spotted her.

"We're going to liberate this town." Konami replied, walking towards the intersection they passed before.

Ringo lagged behind a bit. "Wait, you can't be serious…just the two of us?"

She turned around and looked at him. "Well…I'm sure we could get help if we just ask someone…"

Ringo held his face in his hands and sighed. "If that's what you think…I guess there's no stopping you."

**CHAPTER 12: Quartet to Quintet**

Confident that the girl was unconscious, the Decanus decided to finish the job. He might even get her head mounted on her wall. After he killed her, he would go back and finish off the idiot who stabbed him. Hell, at this point, he would kill every last one of them for what they did. No, just because he could.

Behind his helmet, he smiled as he pulled out the curved machete with his left hand, holding up the girl with his right. Her clothing was relatively easy to cut through, and he poked the tip of the weapon into her hip. He would make a masterpiece out of this one.

Hiyori laid on the ground where the soldier left her, wheezing after hitting the ground knocked the breath out of her. She managed to get to one knee, her bad leg almost making her fall again. Red drops fell onto her knee and she felt the top of her head, her hand coming back bloody. _Must've happened when I fell…_She thought. She looked up and saw the man carving into Tsukasa and she got to her feet. Her lips curled into a grimace of pure anger and she completely ignored the pain, retrieving the other knife he dropped. She made no sound as she stabbed him in the neck with all of her force, plunging the blade in up to the hilt.

The Decanus suddenly realized he made a mistake by not killing the girl he flipped earlier. He slowly turned to look at her and shook. He dropped Tsukasa, her body dragging along the machete, creating a huge gash on her side. The soldier tried to breathe, but his blood went where air should, suffocating him. Spasms wracked his body and he fell, rolling down the hill, lifeless.

Hiyori breathed in heavily and shakily, limping to Tsukasa. The man had already cut up her left side and arm a bit before her right side was sliced, and her leg was messed up by some rocks when she hit the ground. Hiyori trembled and held her. Even though she was technically a doctor, she had no idea what to do in this situation so suddenly.

At about that time, Konata's hand flew up and pulled the rest of her body to the top of the hill. She breathed in deeply for a few seconds before feeling a warm liquid under her head. She slowly opened her eyes and turned around, sitting up. Her mouth opened along with her eyes when she found the source of the blood.

"Wha…what…happened…" Konata said, crawling over to Tsukasa's unconscious form. Hiyori put her head on Tsukasa's chest and felt that she was still breathing, even though faint. She could also hear Tsukasa mumbling something, which was a good sign as well.

Konata and Hiyori jumped when they heard Kagami cough from behind them. They turned to see her grabbing onto a rock to help her get up, only managing to fall on her face when she got to her feet.

Hiyori looked from Tsukasa to Konata, and then went over to help Kagami up. When Kagami stood up, she hunched over, holding her stomach. Hiyori saw what happened to her, and guessed that something was wrong with her internally, but she wouldn't be able to tell until she had the proper equipment. Kagami coughed again, this time getting specks of blood on her hand. Hiyori's eyes widened and she sat Kagami back down where she was.

"Just…please stay here, Kagami. I know you're hurt, so just…try not to…move…" Hiyori said.

Kagami pushed against her. "I'm fine…where's Tsukasa…I can't lose anyone else." She mumbled until she lost against Hiyori and slid down with her back to the rock she was thrown against.

"What the hell?"

Konata, Kagami, and Hiyori froze when they saw a soldier clad in blue on one side and another one in black opposite him.

They all were in no shape to fight, and they hoped to some long-forgotten god that one of those men was on their side. The man in blue pulled out a large blade from his hip and pointed it at the man in black.

"You should have stayed with your group, Legionnaire! Now I'll finish you, and have a story to tell later." The man in blue shouted at the Legion soldier, apparently oblivious to the girls. Once they thought about it, they weren't surprised though, as they could easily pass as dead if they stayed still.

"Who says this is my whole group?" The Legion soldier responded, gesturing toward the bloodstained camp and making a hand signal. At that point, two more black-clad troopers jumped out from behind rocks, rushing the man in blue with machetes. He was too fast, though, taking the sword arm off of one and stabbing the other in the chest. The man in blue then turned a switch on the pre-war motorcycle gas tank on his back and the blade ignited, incinerating the impaled one's insides.

The soldier missing an arm screamed and tried to escape, only to have his back slashed, ending him. The last man standing was about to leave himself when the swordsman sliced him across the chest, burning an X shaped mark into his armor.

The attacker smiled and pulled his hat down over his eyes. "Now, go back to your slaver friends and tell them that the militia isn't going down without a fight." He said as he kicked the Legion soldier in the chest, letting him leave.

He whistled and then looked to his left. "Jeez…what happened here…" He began as Hiyori figured he was safe and stepped out from behind the rock where she and Kagami were hiding, pulling out her found 10mm pistol just in case.

"Please, leave us alone." She said, pointing the gun at the 'militia man'.

He recoiled from her sudden appearance and the fact that she had a gun on him after apparently saving their lives. "Whoa, whoa. Hold on, there. I don't mean you people any harm…" He said, sheathing the flaming blade and putting his hands up.

"Tsukasa, come on. Are you in there? Tsukasa!" Konata yelled as Tsukasa began to stir.

"S-stop…please…I love you…why are you doing that to me? It hurts…" Tsukasa whispered, almost inaudibly.

Konata turned around to Hiyori. "She…she's back!" She yelled.

Hiyori dropped the pistol and ran over to Tsukasa and looked over her, tears falling after she realized her mistake. She looked back to Kagami who was up as well, glaring at the mystery man. She knew that there was a way to close Tsukasa's wounds, but the method had only been done once in her presence, and not by her. The procedure itself almost killed the Brotherhood of Steel initiate it was used on, and Tsukasa would have to be awake for it.

The man tried to get a look at who was hurt, but Kagami was blocking his view. "Hey, if someone's hurt I might be able to-" He began before Kagami cut him off.

"Please…be quiet." She said as she pulled out her laser pistol.

"Okay, I'll stay out of your way." He sneered as he leaned against a rock out of everyone but Kagami's view.

Hiyori gulped and looked down at Tsukasa, who was opening one of her eyes a small amount. "Oh…no…" She mumbled as she saw her condition.

"God…Tsukasa…I'm sorry…" Hiyori said, going to rummage through her things to find the right supplies to get the job done. She found some special material that the BoS had developed to aid in the process. She was going to need all the help she could get if the procedure was going to work. While she had the things there, she wrapped up her head wound and knee, and then attended to Tsukasa. She whimpered loudly when Hiyori wrapped up her arm, leg, and wherever else there were large enough cuts to work with. She got up and whispered something to Kagami, who gave Hiyori her laser pistol.

"Tsukasa…I'm so sorry. Just try not to die, please!" Hiyori yelled. "Kagami, thanks for letting me use your laser pistol."

"Yeah…for Tsu…Tsukasa…" Kagami weakly replied.

As Hiyori messed with the device, she accidentally touched the wrong wires together, causing it to emit a loud 'Bzzzt' and a flash of the gun's red light. She looked at Tsukasa, who was and wriggling around in response to the unpleasant sound.

"Look, Tsukasa, I recalibrated Kagami's laser pistol to soot out a constant beam of less concentrated energy to cauterize your major wounds. This is going to hurt a lot…I'm so sorry…" Hiyori said as calmly as possible, trying to give off the impression that she knew exactly what she was doing.

When she got the weapon into place and released the beam, Tsukasa shrieked in agony for a few seconds, and then went out like a light. Hiyori openly cried as she burned the last of the material into Tsukasa's wounds, closing them up. She removed whatever excess there was and sat down beside Konata, who tried to offer some comfort but didn't know what to say. Hiyori now noticed that Konata's whole arm had been bleeding profusely for a while, and Hiyori used the extra bandaging from Tsukasa's procedure to wrap up Konata's arm.

The man looked around the corner, alerted by the noise. "Holy shit, what happened to her?" He asked, almost in synch with Tsukasa waking back up. Kagami motioned over towards the rest of the group.

Tsukasa fidgeted and Konata put a rolled up sleeping bag under her to prop her up.

"You're probably wondering what happened…well, I guess we'll start from when you were grabbed by the big guy." Konata said, recounting all of the events she witnessed, with the others giving some input when needed.

Tsukasa shook and held her stinging arm. "What about the other guy that helped us?" She asked slowly, carefully forming each of her words.

"Here he is." Said the militia man as he stepped out from around the boulder with his hands in his pockets. "At your service."


	7. Act 7

**ACT 7: CHAPTER 13: Primm Part 1**

Ringo looked from Konami's face to the now red fabric on her arm. "Hey, Konami, we need to change your bandages." He said, also looking around to see if there was anyone around who qualified as a medic. He saw a soldier leaning against an old lone wall having a white armband with a red cross on it. "While we're at it, we may as well get you all the way fixed up. You can't really keep anything steady with your arm like that. Don't think I haven't seen you messing with it."

"Okay…let's just get this over with." She said, yielding to him.

Ringo led her over to the officer and paid the caps to get her arm worked on.

He waited for what seemed like an age outside the medic's tent. Konami walked out with a look of pain on her face, but it seemed more manageable than what she was dealing with earlier. The medical officer told him that if they were planning to take on the convicts in the city than Konami's stitches would more than likely pull out, so he wrapped up her arm again for a precaution. He also told them that he couldn't leave his post, but there were probably a few soldiers around the camp that would be willing to help them in the fight.

Konami and Ringo nodded in unison, thanking the soldier. Soon, they set out looking for people to 'recruit', quickly finding a couple men who were also fed up with the NCR doing nothing, and they came with the duo easily. They figured a group of four was large enough and they went back to the intersection, which had a lone NCR trooper guarding it.

_Shouldn't they have better security?..._Konami thought as the group came up on the guard hut. The soldier, seemingly reading Konami's mind, or just her facial expressions, pointed towards the overpass.

Upon closer examination, Konami saw that there were a few mines in a diamond-like formation blanketing the overpass.

"How are we supposed to not trip any of those…" She thought out loud.

The soldier looked at her and smiled. "Well, I can deactivate them for a little while from this terminal…but as soon as you're across I'll put 'em back online, so don't make a mad dash or you'll get all over the place. I'll wait till I see you walking back calmly to deactivate them to let you back across." He said.

Konami nodded and gulped. She motioned for the group to follow her as the soldier messed with the blocky, ancient terminal until the little yellow lights on the mines began flashing and then went dark. He motioned to his right and the group walked across the overpass. Even though the bombs were obviously deactivated, they still tried their very best not to touch any of them. They got across without incident and got behind the husks of vehicles to their left. Ringo looked back at the bridge and saw that the mines had the almost unnoticeable yellow lights on them again. He took a deep breath and returned to the formation against the cars.

They were faced with a long, open main street in the town, with an old gas station to their left, a large plaza in front of them, and the continued wall to their right.

Konami motioned for the gas station and told the two other soldiers to check it out. She took Ringo and crouch-walked over to the wall.

She looked over and saw the soldiers get to the gas station with no problem and signal for her to move up.

Konami went around the side of the column she was behind and came face to face with a convict. He jumped back, which gave her enough time to kick him in the groin and hit his head on her knee, knocking him out cold. She looked back to see Ringo cringing and cracked a smirk.

The NCR were already up to the first building past the plaza which was a three-story casino that looked pretty beat up, but usable.

Konami and Ringo passed the column and a fire hydrant to move up to a bombed-out building that was unrecognizable. They stepped over the small pile of bricks that used to be the corner of the place, and snuck over to where the window was, seeing three escapees in front of the building the NCR were waiting behind. Konami walked back to the corner of the building and waved for the soldiers to join them, and they came across, checking for movement and seeing none other than the convicts too far up the road to see them.

Konami leaned against a wall and looked around, noticing it was significantly darker since they left the camp. "So, what are we going to do about those guys in front of the casino? There's surely more inside…" She asked the soldiers.

"Well, I guess we just go for it, I mean, we outnumber them, right?" The shorter, noticeably younger, soldier suggested.

The older and wiser man put his hand on his shoulder. "We can't just charge in like that. If we do, one could escape and tell the others to kill the hostages. We can't afford to take that risk. What will the surrounding areas think if they found out we let people die in there? The NCR already has a reputation in this state."

Konami listened a bit more intensely at that. "Why do you guys have a bad wrap around here?" She asked the older man.

"Well, it's not like we just asked nicely to have this territory. Sacrifices had to be made to allow us to continue helping people around here, and nobody seems to like it if you have to…deal with…a few innocent people to save a hundred, but that's what it's come to. Life in this world is war, and you think things through differently in war." He responded, Konami silently agreeing with him. It was a terrible and nasty truth, but truth all the same.

She nodded and looked off to her right. "What do you think we should do, then?" She asked, crossing her arms.

He held up a finger and crouched behind where the window was. "There are three men, not really patrolling, but just standing there. An easy way to take care of them would be to use dynamite and get them all in one go, but that would alert everyone for a quarter of a mile. We could try to take them on silently with our guns, but I don't think any of us have any silencers…" He said.

Konami unlatched her holster and got out the laser pistol. "This thing is pretty quiet at a distance, but they would see the laser beam."

She could see the man perk up. "That's fine…how strong is it?"

"I've seen these things disintegrate people before, so I'd say pretty effective."

He turned around to the window, then back to her. "Do you think you could get up close to them? It's starting to get dark, so it couldn't be too hard."

Konami smiled and put both of her hands on the pistol. "Sure, I can do this, no problem." She confirmed as she turned and made her hand like a gun and aimed it at the convicts.

The man chuckled and let her go with the younger soldier for support. They snuck halfway across the street and hid behind a car. "Looks like the convicts are offset from the wall a bit, so they shouldn't be able to see us if we move up close to the building." Konami said.

The man nodded and went up ahead of her, being as quiet as possible as they inched their way along the wall. Just before they got around the edge, Konami stopped him and stepped to the side a little and shot the first man she saw, instantly turning him to ash. Before the second convict could react, she unloaded half the energy cell on him, eating away the left side of his head and arm.

Konami's backup came right before she shot the second man and ran around her, throwing his knife at the third man, hitting him in the back but not stabbing him. "Damn, I need to practice more after this…" The soldier thought aloud as he quickly caught up with the running man and grabbed him in a full nelson.

Once the electric air leveled out, Konami checked what remained of the second man, finding a bandolier that had laser scoring, but she could fix it later. She slung it around her chest and looked up to see the soldier struggling with the third convict.

"Ah, I got one…miss!" The NCR said as he kneed the convict in the back, making him fall to one knee.

Konami got down on his level and grabbed his shirt, pulling his face up so she could look into his eyes. "Where are you holding the people?" She asked, none-too-nicely.

He sneered at her and tried in vain to head-butt her nose. She pulled back and punched him, bringing his face back up to her. "I'm not going to take any of your shit! Where are they?" She asked again, this time getting a better reaction.

"Some of them are in…the Bison Steve casino…across the street…" He said as he slumped down. Konami fell for it and leaned in when he snapped his head back up, hitting her directly in the chin with double the force of her punch.

"Yahhghh!" Konami yelled as she fell back, holding her mouth. She spit out some blood and part of a tooth as she sat up. She was about to grab the man again, but instead she got up and wiped the blood off her mouth and began to walk across the street to the huge casino.

The NCR man watched her leave with his mouth open, his grip loosening on the convict who took the opportunity to elbow him in the ribs. Since he had a bit of leather armor the trooper wasn't really phased by the attack, but it was enough for the convict to escape his grasp.

"Ah! Damn," The soldier said as he quickly pulled out his rifle and shot the man in the back. "I thought we might be able to get one alive…" He finished as he ran to catch up with Konami.

**CHAPTER 14: Help**

When the mysterious man stepped out from where he was, Tsukasa stared at him for a long while, taking him in. She took note of all of his features including his fingerless leather gloves, long black hair, and mechanical sword. She thought she had seen something like that before, long ago, but she couldn't place when or where, so she forgot the memory quickly.

The man stood still, letting her study him. _Well…I guess it's too late to go back now, since I've shown myself to outsiders. They seem to be against the Legion, though, so that's something…_He thought as Hiyori stepped into his field of view.

"Thanks for saving us…but I think we can handle ourselves from here on out-" She began before he cut her off.

"Wait, wait. You couldn't handle cooked gecko in your condition, much less Caesar's Legion. Let me help you. Hell, how would you feel about joining the militia? I mean, you survived against a Legion kill squad, and that's a feat in and of itself." He said. _Great…me and my huge mouth. The militia is never going to accept them when they're in this condition…_He mused to himself.

His thoughts were cut short when Konata yelled for Hiyori to get over to her. Hiyori took a small step back and turned to Kagami who was heaving behind a rock. Looking back and forth between her and the man for a second, she chose to run to Konata and Kagami. She quickly found that Kagami was anything but okay. When she hit the rock before, she must have…well…Hiyori didn't know exactly what would cause this, but it could be a number of things. She pulled Kagami away from the now red rocks and tried to keep her calm.

"Can your militia help her?" Hiyori asked with what she hoped came across as fire in her eyes.

The man didn't see fire, however, but a spark about to go out. He shook his head and walked over to Tsukasa and turned back to the others. "I'll…I'll take you to them. I'm not making any promises I can't keep, though." He said as he bent down and helped Tsukasa to her feet.

She blinked a couple times and thanked him. He nodded and moved to Kagami, who was completely out of it. She had an almost steady stream of blood running out of her mouth and her eyes were half-closed. Konata and Hiyori, who were crouched down beside her, made way for the man to come between them and pick up Kagami, who he carried over his shoulder. She made a small noise and the man started to walk out of the camp, but he turned around and addressed the women.

"Do you need to pack up…the camp…?" He asked while surveying it. He figured there wasn't much left that wasn't already saturated in someone's blood, but Konata rolled up one of the less affected sleeping bags and slung it over her good shoulder while Hiyori picked up her pistol and a few remaining magazines of ammo. Tsukasa looked around to see if there was anything she could do, but there wasn't much left. She looked over at Kagami, who was already a bit paler than usual. Tsukasa shivered and walked around in circles until everyone had done what they needed.

The man nodded and left the camp heading west. After they walked for a few miles, Konata decided to get to know him better and caught up with him.

Sensing her coming up behind him, he slowed down a bit to talk with her. "Hey. We can stop in a bit if you want."

Konata waved her hand and looked over at Kagami who he was still carrying, now in his arms. "No, that's fine…I just wanted to ask you some things."

"Okay, ask away." He said, looking out over the flat land, being careful to avoid the various potholes that popped up here and there.

"First of all, how about your name?" Konata asked.

He chuckled a bit. "I'm Meito Anizawa, and I still don't know your names either."

Konata nodded and began. "My name's Konata. The girl you're carrying is Kagami, and that's Tsukasa, her sister. That just leaves Dr. Hiyori behind us."

Meito perked up a bit and began walking faster. He quickly sat Kagami behind a rock and motioned for the others to find a hiding place as well. As he leaned on the boulder with his back, Konata got on the other side of Meito beside Kagami.

"What's up?" Konata whispered to him.

He peeked over the rock for a second and pulled in a deep breath, getting back behind it. "I guess you were wondering who those guys were…well Arizona is where the Legion came from in the first place…they're based in Phoenix if I remember right. We'll have to get close to the city if we're going to get to the militia's HQ." He explained, motioning out in front of the rock, where Konata saw a huge group of soldiers, at least 50 or more strong.

Konata mimicked his position and looked over to him. "What's the Legion's deal, anyway?" She asked.

Meito looked down and pulled his hat over his eyes. "All they are is a group of petty slavers. They aren't worth anything, and they still manage to beat us at every turn. I'm about ready to do what it takes to rid this dying planet of Caesar and his crazy fanboys." He finished his short speech clenching his fist with a wildfire in his eyes. Konata was a bit afraid of what he would do next, with that look. In fact, he seemed like he was about to jump out there and try to take on all of those Legion soldiers by himself, but he got a little calmer after the look on Konata's face.

He took a deep breath and looked back over the boulder, seeing the Legion guys making their way on down the road. He nodded and motioned for everyone to follow him and picked up Kagami, walking along the side of the road where there was a little cover from the odd bush or rock.

Eventually, Meito decided to take the long way around Phoenix to avoid as many Legion as possible. It was well into the night when they arrived on the outskirts of what was once a sizeable town, but now just a mess with only a few intact buildings.

"Be careful around here, the place is full of traps. Follow my steps exactly, and you'll be fine." He said as he slowly wound his way through the ruins of the town.

_Heh, this kind of reminds me of the Minefield incident…I really hope Yui got something useful out of that…_Konata thought as she crept along right behind Meito. _That was the first time any of us were really hurt…now near-death experiences are almost a daily thing…_

They ended up at what looked like a pre-war church, and Meito handed off Kagami to Hiyori and went inside. Konata and Tsukasa turned their Pip-Boy brightness to high and sat against the wall of the church. Hiyori sat Kagami up beside Tsukasa and examined her, trying to see if there was anything she could do. She lightly felt Kagami's stomach and sides. She didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, so that was a good sign. Hiyori was about to check her ribs, but Meito returned with someone who was dressed the same as him, except he didn't have a duster. He walked over and squatted down beside Kagami.

"So, Anizawa, is this her?" He asked, poking his thumb at Kagami.

Meito nodded and crossed his arms. "So, can you help her?" He asked.

The other man examined her face. "Well, I can't tell what's wrong with the girl here. I need to get her inside." He said as he stood up and stretched. He walked halfway to the door and waved his hand. "Well, are you people coming or not?"

Konata got to her feet and helped Tsukasa stand. Hiyori scooped up Kagami and carried her into the building behind Meito.

He let her go first and looked back, closing the door.

The inside of the building was no more impressive than one could expect from a wasteland, but it was in better order than other places the group had been in. It was stripped of pretty much everything of use, and there was nothing metal in sight except the exposed skeleton of the building in places. The militia man led them into a room off to the left which wasn't really any different from the entry hall other than what looked like a glowing door with a terminal hooked up to it. The man entered a long password and the door groaned and seemed to slip and slide on itself before being drawn up into the wall. Konata remembered seeing something like that before, and she took note of it.

The group walked down a narrow, military-looking stairwell behind the door which opened up to a medium-sized corridor with branching passages. Directly in front of them was a huge wall with an ancient American flag hung up on it above two guards with assault rifles and sky blue power armor.

The man greeted the guards who tensed up when they saw the outsiders. "Sgt. Thomas. Andrews." He said as he passed them by. They stiffly nodded at him as he led the group down a hall to the left. Everyone's compliance at having outsiders there astonished Konata. It kind of made her wonder what Meito said to the guy.

He cut off Through a door to the left which was the entrance to the clinic in the facility. He pointed out a couple beds where Kagami could go and Hiyori laid her down on the closest one. The group stepped back as the doctor gathered a few things and went to examine her thoroughly. They didn't stick around to see exactly what he did, and they waited outside the room for a while.

Soon enough, he called them back inside and told them to sit wherever they could find a place.

"Well…your friend is really not doing too well. I think she'll live, but she should have been taken care of sooner. I found that some of her organs suffered some serious trauma, causing her to bleed internally. She lost…a dangerous amount of blood. We need to give her a transfusion, but her type, B, is unavailable to us from blood packs because of its rarity. If any of you have B type blood, would you be willing to help her?" He asked, putting his hands on his desk.

Tsukasa quickly stepped forward and put her hand on her chest. "I'm her sister. I have the same blood type as her, take what you need, please!" She said, surprising Konata and Hiyori with her aggressiveness.

The doctor looked at her and shook his head. "Girl, you don't look much better than her…" He began before he saw the determination in her eyes. Despite her condition, Tsukasa looked strong, and felt it, for the first time in a long time. "…but…I…can do my best to keep you both stable during the operation." He finished.

Tsukasa smiled when she heard that she could finally do something for the sister that always looked after her. Kagami had given her everything, even a child, and now she was finally able to repay the debt a bit.

The doctor sighed and shooed everyone else out of the room so he could begin. He instructed Tsukasa to lie on the bed next to Kagami's, and when she was in place, he put her out to perform the operation.


	8. Act 8

**A/N: Alright, guys. Just a couple things before we start here…(story here-I changed Konami's destination to the Vikki and Vance casino which she was standing in front of rather than the Bison Steve. Just to clear that up.) Okay, if there are any things you think I could do to improve characters, writing, and/or problems you would like to address, then please leave it in a review or PM me for other questions you may have. Also, I would very much like your opinion on whether or not you think my chapters should be longer. Thanks for the support, and stay awesome.**

**ACT 8: CHAPTER 15: Primm Part 2**

The gunshot didn't slow Konami, who kept on walking, but she was worried that the noise would bring some unwanted attention to them. She looked to her right towards the old rollercoaster across the town and noticed movement. She sped up a little when the soldier got to her, and she quickly opened the door to the Vikki and Vance, being instantly confronted by a man.

"Hey, miss, I don't know what brought you here, but you ought to go back where you came. Town's gone to hell." He said while walking to her.

She closed the door and looked around, responding to him. "Wait, wait. Who are you?" She asked.

"Johnsen Nash's my name…I've been living here for eight years with my wife, Ruby. I'm a trader, for what it's worth now, and I run the Mojave Express to the right out the door."

Konami perked up a bit at that. "Hey, I'm a courier for the Mojave Express….a while back, someone tried to kill me and stole my package."

He motioned for her to follow him and they walked to the side of some slot machines. "I know what you're talking about. That job had strange written all over it, but we couldn't refuse the caps."

Konami leaned on the guardrail behind her. "What made it strange?" She asked him.

He turned a bit and touched his neck. "That…cowboy robot made us hire six couriers, and each of them were sent out with a different thing. One had a pair of dice, another had a chess piece…things like that. From what I've heard, yours was the only delivery that didn't make it. You know what? Someone came by before you, and just before he went out on the job, he cancelled on us! That's where you came in. I asked him if he was sure, but the guy said 'let Courier Six carry the package', then he up and left. The way he acted…I figured you had history or something. Maybe he thought the name was bad luck…Who's to say?" He finished.

_Wait…cowboy robot…is he talking about Victor? And what about the other Courier…_ Konami wondered while she listened, and when Nash was done, she thought again for a moment and asked a different question. "Well, the man who mugged me may have been through here…have you seen a man in a checkered suit come this way?"

John crossed his arms and thought a bit before responding. "Well, a few days ago a townie was out scavenging and said he saw a guy with a daisy suit and some of those Great Khan boys…and they were talking about a chip. If you want to know the whole story, talk to Deputy Beagle. He was taking notes on the convicts and slinking around the Bison Steve across the street when your friend came through."

Konami nodded and began to join back up with the NCR soldier with her. "Thank you. I'll get Beagle. Oh, one more thing. Did you see some Powder Gangers with a girl around here?" She asked.

He shook his head. "No, I haven't personally, but Beagle the 'scout' might have. See you after you get your work done." He said.

She threw up a short wave and touched the soldier, telling him to follow her. Before she left, she turned back to the casino and saw a not too large number of people moving around lazily, like they were accepting their defeat. In the state they were in, defeat wasn't too far away now, but she would do her best to set this town straight and try to deal with their problem. She exited into the night and looked around a bit, trying to keep an eye on the rollercoaster and moving across the street to get to the Bison Steve casino. It was a huge building, and she figured it would take a while to search it all, but she was determined to leave this town with at least a lead on her sister, and the man who tried to end her.

Konami told the soldier to go and tell the group to follow her in and wait in the front room, so initially she went in alone. She opened the door as slowly as she could and she led with her laser pistol. Once it was open wide enough for her to enter, she slipped through, hiding in the shadows to the left. She instantly spotted one convict who had left the room a moment before, and she heard another one deeper in the building. She crouched and got behind a counter. She peeked over and saw a convict looking her right in the eyes. She shot back down behind the counter as he ran forward, having only a melee weapon, climbing over and stabbing his knife where Konami's head was a moment before. To his dismay, he saw her roll the opposite direction and get to her feet. He tried to unjam the knife but couldn't fast enough as Konami buffeted him with laser fire.

The other man she had heard earlier must have been alerted by the light and sound as he ran around the corner to check it out, and she left him with the same fate. _Okay…I'm doing good so far…I just have to find Beagle…_She thought as she went through the doorway down the hall, reloading her laser pistol with a random cell. _Geez…it's so dark in here. I can't see a thing…_

She decided to use the shadows to her advantage and make as little sound as possible, moving close to the wall and sneaking until she got halfway down the hall, where there was light and a convict. She stopped just short of him, standing up and getting ready to end him with the other man's knife when he turned around and saw her getting ready to stab him.

This man was much more attentive and quick, as he punched her in the gut before she knew what was happening, causing her to stumble back and drop the knife in the darkness. She was getting her breath back when she saw him take some kind of pill and walk into the dark like it was the light. She swung at him but he ducked out of the way effortlessly and grabbed her arm. _Shitshitshit_…She frantically thought and managed to kick him in the shin and get free. That didn't stop him long though, as he almost instantly pushed her into the wall and pinned her hands behind her back.

"Shhh…calm down…you put up more of a fight than those normal people in the town ever could…you aren't normal are you?" He said as he held her hands together and whispered to her.

Konami didn't respond but just flared her nostrils, trying to fight against him.

"I recognize this hair…do you have a sister?" He said as he suppressed her strength.

At that her eyes opened as wide as they could possibly go and she turned her head around as far as it could turn, looking into the dark where she guessed his face was. Then, her eyes closed and opened again, this time baring a look of pure rage.

"YES!" She yelled and rolled sideways and kicked her feet backwards, her body knocking the man off balance, letting one of her arms go. The force of her sudden outburst of energy also had an effect on her, however, causing her to fall to the ground hard on her left shoulder, her right arm jamming up because of the man's grip on it. She gasped in pain as her right arm came incredibly close to breaking and she could feel the fabric of her clothes soak up the blood flowing from the old wound on her left.

Konami was able to slip out of his grasp and get up, for what it was worth. She held her bleeding arm and stood there staring at the silhouette of the convict. He seemed to also be staring at her. They stood like that for a few minutes, and after a while, the man tossed her something and turned around, walking to the table the lamp was on and sitting down in the chair beside it.

She kept her eyes slanted and watching his position as she bent down and picked up whatever it was he gave her. When she examined it, a bit of light fell on the metal instrument. He had given her a stimpak…and let her pass him by. _What the…why are all of these Powder Gangers letting me go all of a sudden?_ She thought as she walked around where he was and returned the knife to her belt, not looking back.

The hallway wasn't too long, but it made a left U-turn at the end, the branching hall having a doorway to a large, open room to the right. Konami took a deep breath and tried to sneak into the room, sticking to the dark left wall. There were a few fire barrels in the center and corners of the room that gave a bit of glow, enough for Konami to think that there was no one in this room. _Huh? That's weird…_She thought as she snuck over to a barrier of overturned tables near the middle of the room. She looked to the left and saw two people through a doorway, but it was too dark in there to tell who they were. She turned to her right and walked along the barricade, peeking up occasionally. On her last look, there were five visible convicts.

She quickly took note of them and got down. There were two sleeping, two talking, and one with a huge…weapon of some sort…she hadn't seen anything like it in her life. She thought for as long as she let herself and decided to toss one of the few sticks of dynamite she had collected to deal with them. She took a very deep breath and pulled out an old, almost worn out flip top lighter that she had found years ago and held it close for a few seconds. She let out the breath she was holding and quickly lit the fuse on the dynamite. She heard one of the men make a noise of confusion and she popped up and threw the dynamite as hard as she could towards them.

One of the convicts spotted the sparking fuse first, and he got behind the farthest thing he could find for cover. The heavily armed man followed suit and got out of there as fast as he could, but the other three weren't so lucky, though, as the last alert man started to run but stumbled, the explosion causing him to flip over the barricade and hit the wall with his back, sliding down and slumping over. The other two sleeping convicts were covered by the destruction following the explosion.

Konami knew that the building was already unstable, as many floors had fallen through the top or were about to, and when that dynamite went off, it caused the wall close to it and the floor above it to be completely demolished, followed by whatever other rubble fell through the hole.

When the dust cleared, Konami coughed and looked around, finding the fire barrels lighting the room dark, bathing the place with a shallow glow from the two working lamps. The air was only still and dark for a moment, though, because the convict with the huge weapon noticed Konami and told the other man that he could handle it.

The man was wearing a hockey mask, but she knew that he must have been smiling like a madman behind it, if he would use a weapon like that. The first ball of fire missed Konami completely, but she could feel the energy holding it together as it hit a table beside her instead, exploding and sending flaming chunks of wood flying around. She looked back from the convict to the table and leaped over the smoldering ruins as two more fireballs whizzed past. She tried to move in a circular motion around him, and a few times her bloody arm was almost taken off by a ball of fire. Either way, she had already gotten a few burns from his incessant shooting, and in a last-ditch effort she shot towards him to get into cover behind a counter and held her head as a ball exploded right above her, dazing her.

She crawled to the left and took out her laser pistol just to find the energy cell dead. _No…I just changed it!_ She thought as she frantically found something else…the knife from earlier. She slowly pulled herself up to a standing position. Even though her vision was failing and she was dizzy, Konami not only stood but got up on the counter and leaped at the armed convict, screaming and hoping her knife would find a target.

Her attempt wasn't a failure, but instead of stabbing the man, her knife sank into the small terminal on top of the huge chunk of metal. The convict looked up at her and tried to push it away, but Konami instead gathered her waning strength and made his grip loosen on it which gave her a chance to push it on top of him as she tripped him.

Judging by his reaction, what was about to happen wasn't good, so she ran back and fell behind a table.

After a few seconds, she heard a metallic, moist hiss followed by a spark, and then…black.

.

.

.

When she woke up, a large part of the table was across her body, and when she tried to move it, something stopped her. "Wh…what…oh…oh…" Konami stammered to herself as she realized what was causing her distress. There was a broken metal rod from the weapon about a foot long going into her right side and poking out her back. Her eyes opened wider and twitched as they found that there was a puddle of blood around her. She breathed erratically and unevenly, trying to at least sit up. Luckily, she managed that much at least, and she wheezed as she sat on her knees with her hands on the ground in front of her. When she was able to look up, she saw an almost completely different room. The tables were pushed over or just gone, and there was a slight crater in the middle of the room. The convicts were…everywhere.

"Have to…get...*gasp* to Mari…Mar…" She began as she started to stand and stumbled, falling on her left side. She tried to breathe in but coughed because of the extremely dusty air, which caused fresh blood to bubble up out of her wound and run over her hand. "Gah…damn it…Need to leave this…in…" She murmured as she finally managed to get to her feet, with tears running down her face. She stumble-walked over to the entrance to the only room she hadn't been in this far, where she guessed the convicts were keeping Deputy Beagle.

"Just…a few…more…step…s…" Konami whispered as she fell to the ground again, this time halfway inside of the doorway where she was headed.

Beagle woke up in a daze after the multiple explosions just outside the kitchens where he was tied up. He coughed and tried to get to his knees, which was hard with his hands tied behind his back.

"Ergh…what the hell happened…" He croaked out through the clouds of dust around him. He was lucky he was wearing some tough leather right now, or else he would have been run through with all of the metal laying around.

It was then when he saw the figure of a girl collapse just inside of the room, looking like she came from the point of the explosions.

"Ah…miss? Hello?" He called to her, not receiving an answer. He saw blood very slowly creeping its way around her side, but he couldn't tell what exactly the damage was in the dim glow of the room. Since she didn't respond, he decided to wait for a while for her to wake up…if she woke up…

**CHAPTER 16: No…No, No, No!**

_Drip drip beep beep._

_"__Is it..."_

_"__I'm sure she'll…"_

_"__Don't worry, it's all going to be…"_

_"__What? I…"_

_"__Konata…Konata…"_

_Drip drip beep beep._

_"__I'm sorry."_

Kagami opened her eyes very slowly, at first not really opening them at all because of a glaring orange brightness that assaulted them when she cracked her eyelids. Eventually, her pupils adjusted to normal light, and not just those strange rainbow glow shapes that your brain makes when your eyes are closed. She was cautious and barely opened them anyway, catching a glimpse of something bright green before she slammed them shut again. _Konata…_She thought. _Oh…I can still think…good…_She thought. Her whole body had the tingling feeling that your limbs get if you sleep on them wrong, which meant she had blood, and it was trying to return to its place. She heaved a deep sigh, and she just then really felt the pressure on her chest. _Wait, Konata!_ She realized as she opened her eyes a bit again, and found herself staring at the bluenette's pupils. She would have chuckled if she could, but she was afraid something would happen if she did. For now, she focused on trying to actually feel Konata's body weighing down on hers, and not just know it was there.

Hiyori watched the episode from the window outside of the doc's office, which was un-shaded for this. She and Meito had left Konata in there with Kagami and Tsukasa, waiting for them to wake up. When Konata noticed that Kagami was breathing regularly, she stood up and simply felt her chest, feeling it rise and fall. She had only just then actually climbed up onto Kagami, looking into her face when she awoke, causing Konata to shudder uncontrollably. She almost fell off of Kagami's body, but managed to hold herself on by latching to Kagami's shoulders and slowly kissing her, something that she hadn't even attempted in the past few weeks they had together. Konata shuddered again once she realized that Kagami had put a hand on her waist and was kissing back. When Hiyori saw all of this, a tear rolled out of her eye and down her cheek, and she put her hand to the glass, wanting so badly to go to Tsukasa. Eventually, she broke down and ran into the room before Meito could hear her start sobbing wildly.

Meito's face broke into a huge grin when he saw how everyone was reacting to this final awakening. He held his fist to the glass whenever Hiyori fell on Tsukasa, hugging her body tightly and crying openly and almost violently. A slight tear even came to his eye as the facility's doctor, whom the outsiders had previously learned was called Evans, touched Meito on the shoulder. "See? I told you it would work." He said.

"Heheh…you did an unbelievable job, doc. *sniff* I wish I could have done more for those women when I could." Meito responded, clenching his fist tighter.

Evans leaned against the window and took a cigarette out of his lab coat and lit it. "Well, I'm sure they know you did what you could. Y'know, when you returned, you seemed a bit distant, there Anizawa. I was starting to get worried." He said, jokingly.

Meito laughed, wiped his nose on his sleeve, and came back smirking. "I don't know, I just didn't know the people, and I wanted to be on my guard. This is the end of the world, anyway." He finished, somewhat serious again.

That got a chuckle out of the doctor, who took another drag on the cigarette and greeted a passing militia member. After a little while Meito straightened up and took off down the hallway.

"Ah damn, I forgot my shift down in C level was starting soon! Hope you can tear those girls apart long enough to examine them, doc!" He called as he jogged and waved back towards Evans.

_Meito Anizawa…he's a character, that one…_He thought as he entered the room and flicked his cigarette into the ashtray on his desk. "So, how's it going?" He asked everyone in the room. Konata jumped and slid off of Kagami into the seat beside her, sitting backwards to look at Evans, grinning in that eerie way only she knows how. Hiyori, however, continued to lay on Tsukasa, who had not come around yet like Kagami had a little.

The doctor shrugged and sat in the seat on the opposite side of Konata. He examined Kagami's IV and concluded that the antibiotics were doing their job. The sudden operation had caused Kagami and Tsukasa's blood to develop an infection from something, and he had managed to properly diagnose it with a little help from part-time nurses and a medical student who would follow in his footsteps. All in all, Kagami and Tsukasa had been medicinally asleep for about a week to allow for the treatments to take effect. Apparently Kagami was beginning to come around.

Evans jumped when Hiyori made a strange noise as she realized that Tsukasa was starting to stir as well. The man turned around and checked Tsukasa's IV too, seeing everything was in order. He put his hand on Hiyori's back as she silently sobbed. Soon enough, he concluded that he was a physical doctor, not a mental one, and decided to leave them to themselves. He pushed a black button on the wall and the window suddenly gained a dark tint, shutting those outside out, and those inside in. He had a small smile on his face that suddenly changed to a deeply worried grimace as he remembered something and hurried out of the room and down the hall to C level.

Konata sat quietly for as long as she could before she was convinced that Kagami was able to speak, and she stood up and hung over Kagami's bed. "Kaga…Kagami…are you…do you need anything…" She feverishly asked as Kagami touched her shoulder. "Yes…what is it?"

"Co...d…ou…g..t…h..r.. …" Kagami mumbled.

Konata came closer to her mouth and tried to make out the words. "Come on, what is it?"

"Coul…ou…ge…you…hair…ou…of…m…mouh…plea…" Kagami mumbled again.

Konata laughed as she realized what Kagami was saying. "Oh…but Kagamin…I thought you _liked_ my hair…" She cooed as Kagami lightly hit her in the side of the head. "Eheh…fair enough." She yielded as she brushed her hair away with her hand.

Kagami took in a deep breath as Konata stepped away and tried to pull her hair back. Kagami managed to force her weak facial muscles make a small smile, but there was so much she wanted to do, say, apologize for, and see, but now she settled for a small smile, and Konata did, too. Kagami used a lot of strength to wave Konata back to her, and she came promptly and put her hand in Kagami's.

"I'm sorry…Konata…I was-" She began until Konata put a finger to her lips and kissed her again.

"You don't have to apologize for anything Kagami. Just…" Konata began. "…Feel me and you'll know all that you need to." She finished, breaking away. When she did, Kagami's face showed an almost infinite mix of emotions. Konata sat down and let Kagami alone to her thoughts.

In the meantime, Hiyori had calmed her emotions a little and moved her chair closer to Tsukasa as she put Tsukasa's hands in hers. "Oh…Tsukasa…please talk to me." She whispered, fighting back a fresh flood of tears.

When Tsukasa opened her eyes in the same fashion as Kagami, the first thing she saw was Hiyori's torn face…and it was one of the worst things she could think of right then. She was much too weak to do much but whisper, but when Hiyori saw her mouth twitching, she shot up and put her ear next to Tsukasa's lips, trying to hear every slight movement.

Tsukasa was barely able to get out what she did. "H…Hiyori…thank…you. For being…here…while…I…"

Hiyori couldn't take it anymore. She had thought about Tsukasa every day ever since they left Carbon, and she was only now able to be…just there with Tsukasa. She had started actually loving Tsukasa when she was hooked up to her sister by Evans, and now seeing her like this…

Hiyori stood up and put her hand on Tsukasa's cheek. "It was the least I could…do…" She choked out when the tears came again. Tsukasa reached up and brushed Hiyori's hand with hers, finding the strength to speak again.

"Please…d…don't cry…I should be the one…" She murmured as Hiyori finished off any last smidgeon of doubt she may have had before then and roughly kissed Tsukasa. They closed their eyes, and even though it may not have looked too pretty, what they felt exploding and whirling about on the inside of their minds was exchanged on their lips in that moment. When Hiyori broke away, she saw that Tsukasa's face was now just as damp as hers. Hiyori sat back down about the same time as Konata and put her hands on the back of her head and pulled it down as far as it would go, pulling her legs up for a moment as well. She quickly found that that pose was almost impossible in that chair, so instead she settled for letting her body go limp and letting her head hang.

Everyone was silent for what was probably an hour or so…but what felt like a millennium. Kagami, Tsukasa, and Konata had gone to sleep, and Hiyori had her friends' Pip-Boys laid out on Evans' table and was running various technical diagnostics on them, making sure that they were still in working order after all of that action and then sudden disuse. Everything seemed fine to her, and she closed the small screen on a machine she had made back in the Republic of Miyuki for just that purpose. She sat back in the doctor's more comfortable chair, thinking about her past life, and possible future life.

Her thoughts, however, were cut short when the metallic door to the facility was loudly opened and a tall woman not unlike Miyuki with long pink hair and glasses stepped through the door, closely followed by a couple of armored soldiers. These mens' armor was painted sky-blue, like the other guards, but it seemed different somehow, almost familiar, but Hiyori couldn't place it exactly. She felt like she almost had it a couple times, but she came up short.

She turned to them in the swiveling chair. "Um…I don't think I've seen you before. Are you one of Evans' assistants?" She said, looking the woman in the face.

The mystery woman chuckled and put her hands behind her back. Hiyori just noticed that her dress was not like a lab assistant at all…much less any militia agent she had seen around here. It looked colorless…and gloss…she was sporting a short skirt and white and black skin-tight suit not unlike that of a military group she had known long ago.

"Well, not exactly. I heard that our honored guests were waking up, so I wanted to have a little chat with them." She responded, nodding for her guards to go two points around the room. They were holding plasma weapons…still another clue…

Hiyori smiled sweetly at the woman and continued her dance of death. "Would you mind telling me who you are?" She asked.

Before the woman could answer, Hiyori caught movement out of the corner of her eye, seeing Kagami actually sit up and almost puke while doing so, but she kept it under control. "Ah…uhh…Hiyori! No! No no no no no…" Kagami almost shouted when she saw the woman. If that wasn't enough, when she caught sight of the two guards in the room, her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head. The armor was painted over, but there was no doubt about it. When the mystery woman noticed Kagami looking around, mortified, she smiled brightly and largely, unbuttoning her breast pocket and lifting up the flap, which had a black E surrounded by stars on a white background.

Kagami tore the IV out of her arm and leaped out of her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs. "**NO, NO NO NO NO!**"

Hiyori instantly tried to lunge at the woman when she understood the situation, but her enemy snapped her fingers and the Enclave soldier closest to Hiyori pulled out an electrical instrument that could knock down a cow and smacked her in the face with it, sending her spinning.

Konata had woken up at this point, and fell on the ground by herself when she saw what happened to Hiyori. She quickly flew to her feet and pulled out a small energy generator that Hiyori made a while back to use in times like this. Konata squinted her eyes and her mouth twisted into a grimace when she aimed the device at the soldier who struck Hiyori and pulled the trigger, causing his suit's helmet to malfunction and break his neck. Steam rose from a pressure crack caused by the stress on the suit. She really didn't want to see what kind of affect it had on flesh, but she aimed it at the woman anyway, and when the woman sidestepped to avoid a charging Kagami, Konata missed, instead hitting the window and causing it to vibrate so violently that it spontaneously shattered, sending shards of glass flying.

Kagami had already fallen down from her momentum, and Konata had gotten to the ground when she realized what she had done, but the woman had no idea what was coming.

She fell to the ground, shocked, with an almost uncountable amount of bloody glass sticking out of the right side of her face.

Konata promptly leaped up and ran to Tsukasa's bedside, expecting to see her but instead finding the other protected Enclave soldier brushing glass off of his armor with one hand while carrying an already unconscious Tsukasa with the other. His helmet's cold eye sockets seemed to stare into Konata's soul unforgivingly as he grabbed her by the throat and held her up. His head cocked from side to side like some kind of alien evaluating his prey. She was about to give up when she heard a familiar voice from outside the room.

"Daaaaaammmnnn iiiiiit!" Yelled Meito as he ran into the room. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" He shouted as loud as he possibly could when he saw the state of things completely the opposite of how he left it. "I mean…what the…why is…DAMN YOU!" He finished as he jumped around from place to place, yelling at the still standing Enclave soldier holding the women. He dropped them to the ground and looked up at Meito, taking off his helmet.

"Heheh…you always were the stupid and 'courageous' one, Anizawa. Can't you let a couple of bitches you don't even know go away for your own good?" The man in the suit asked.

Meito looked down to the ground for a second, then looked back up with a feeling he had never before fully realized. Pure and total hatred for someone. "No. No, I can't Andrews. I won't give up these women. Especially not to you. I've seen this happen before and lived through it, but I distanced myself from the others. I tried not to care, but these…people…I've been through a lot with them, and I'm not going to just stand by while you-"

Stopped by something…some external piercing pressure…Meito looked down and saw a combat knife hilt with the blade hidden within him. His body not sure what to do, he just made several defeated sounds and stepped back, falling to one knee, the knife still in him.

"Don't you ever shut up?" The woman sincerely asked, picking a large shard of glass out of her cheek and dropping it to the ground. She waved for the Enclave officer to put his helmet back on and follow her out. He made an affirmative noise and picked up Konata and Tsukasa, walking out of the clinic in front of his superior while she called for another trooper to come and retrieve the remaining girls, and Meito. She made sure to stab him somewhere non-fatal, but he would go through plenty of pain. On the way out, she bent down to retrieve her glasses and kicked him, the only sound left the crunching of glass underfoot and Meito slumping over, not quite done yet.


	9. Act 9

**ACT 9: CHAPTER 17: Pause**

**_"Hehehe…Come on Mariko, it's only a little farther!" I called, looking back out over the "plain". Well, it wasn't exactly a plain, but a rocky open area. Konata told me it was okay to pretend, though. Ugh…that girl really is slow!_**

**_"Just…wait…I'm coming…" She barely choked out before she got up to where I was and collapsed, breathing hard._**

**_I sat down and patted her on the back. "Well, at least you made it, you little deathclaw." I teased when she managed to sit up. She moved closer to me and I put my arm around her to help warm her up. I guess she made a bad choice when she just decided to wear her training clothes out here…it may be scorching hot in the spring and summer, but in the winter it's so cold that you can literally freeze off your hand. So I hugged her and rubbed her arms, trying to work out the cold. I'm not that much older than her, but sometimes I feel like I'm much older than I really am. I feel like such an older sister sometimes. She's my biological sister, but my legal cousin…so I understand it. _**

**_"Huh…huh…oh Konami…can't you c-cut me a little slack? It's c-cold out here…" She said, grabbing my arm. "Why are we out here anyway?" She asked, getting to her feet. _**

**_I pulled on her arm to help myself get up, and then looked down at her. "Well…we'll do whatever we want today." I said, taking out my laser pistol and pointing in a random direction to emphasize my point. Mariko shook her head. _**

**_"I still don't know what you mean…" She moaned melodramatically and threw up _****her****_ hands, sitting back onto the ground._**

**_I sighed and sat back beside her. "Okay, I was just going to teach you how to shoot better." I yielded._**

**_She looked back at me and motioned out to the gray area in front of us. "Out here? In the cold? Are you sure?" She asked, with a legitimate question. I didn't really know why we were out here either, I was just trying to make up an excuse…but why? _**

**_"You know what…I don't really know." I told her, feeling kind of…guilty? Was that the feeling? I don't know why that was there…it's hard to remember much in this state…_**

**_But anyway, feelings aside, I know that I stood up here, and stretched, trying to work out the tightness of my chilled nerves. That much is vivid. After that, I looked down at her and finally realized why I dragged her out here. I brought the girl away from home because I didn't want her to see Kagami's condition. She was the worst she had been since I last saw her…it was a few years before I left, I think I was fourteen and Mariko was thirteen._**

**_Konata and Kagami were sleeping in the next room when I woke to weak sobbing…almost as if someone had been crying for a long time, and was almost out of energy. I was well aware of my birthmother's mental state…all throughout my childhood she could easily put on a mask…_****her****_ version of a smile…just a weak attempt at something used to conceal real emotion. I will admit that I thought she was strong…but I didn't know what strength was then, and I also didn't realize how easy strength was to confuse with weakness. When I was young, around four or five, she attempted suicide…didn't even leave a note. Luckily, Konata was able to stop her in time. All I saw from the bedroom doorway that night through blurry eyes was a gun and a hand…a gun and a hand. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life, huh? Back then…hell, even now._**

**_But at that moment, back to my room, I knew that that sick, weak noise must have come from Kagami. I couldn't possibly understand why she was going through that…I still barely have a grasp on her shattered mind. All I knew was that I had to get out…I figured that Konata could sort it out this time, she was always able to in the past. The last thing I heard before I slipped into the hallway was Kagami mumbling about darkness…and herself._**

**_It was still dark outside, so I just paced outside Mariko's room until the first tendrils of tainted dawn came up over the horizon. After that, I assumed that she would willingly come with me, and I was right. I barged in like always, and it looked like she was already awake, so I just asked and she followed._**

**_And here we find ourselves back on this hill. Me and Mariko. That was also a recurring theme. I knew I could count on her for anything, anytime. Now that I think about it, I guess I brought her out here more for me than her. She couldn't have seen or heard Kagami unless she was where I was…_****Ineeded****_ her. I know for a fact that she was confused about the situation, but when I stopped and looked down at her, it was_****_like she understood. Somehow, she realized that I needed her, one more time. I hugged her again, because I felt…I felt embarrassed, guilty…sad…alone…_**

**_Fast forward a few years._**

**_I was sixteen when I decided to leave. I told people that it was because I wanted an adventure…something to prove that I was really a woman now, but I knew the truth. I couldn't live like that anymore. I didn't want to be living in constant fear that my mother would off herself…via her gun or something else. I just left…spontaneously one day. I don't even remember what day it was now. All that I remember was Mariko standing there, a shadow across her face and tears running down her face. The brahmin train was safe, but I hated it when I compared it with home...when I thought of her…I realized that I never should have left, but it was too late. I found myself in Nevada before I could so much as turn my head back and get one last look at the Republic of Miyuki._**

**_Now here I am…thinking the same thoughts…probably bleeding out…Mariko captured by a group of homicidal men who probably haven't so much as seen a woman for years, put those pieces together…and my mother doing who knows what however many miles away. I can't think of a time when I've been more alone. Alone…_**

**_Blood…so much blood…_**

_Blood…_

_Bloo…_

"Konami,"

Pressure.

"Hey."

Tension.

"Get it together…"

Motion.

"She's not going to…"

"No, she will."

Rest.

**_"What…Where am I?" I asked the bright darkness…_**

**"You're home now, Konami. It's alright, don't cry. I'm here now."****_ A white figure cooed over the silent screeching in what I'm guessing was the roaring ocean of my mind. When I made the motion to look up, I think I _****felt****_ more than _****saw****_ a hand, like it was being pushed towards me from an impossible distance, but an all too familiar closeness. I smiled…I held out my hand and felt a brightness envelop me…but almost not a physical brightness, and not necessarily a positive brightness either. I almost let myself feel the brightness swallow me up…and I opened my mind's eyes._**

**_Wait! NO! I don't want to go yet!_**

**What?**

**_I really don't…I still have things to do…I know what you are._**

**That's great…you know, it's awful hard to change your fate like this. From where I am, I can tell that about half of your lifeblood has left you…and that includes your spirit.**

**_I…don't care…all I want is to get to my sister…after that you can do what you want…I just want her…_**

**I am not life. I can't just snap my fingers and watch you prance away like this. I can breathe a bit of your spirit back, but I'm certain that you will want to return. You might come back involuntarily. From what I hear, getting a steel rod stuck where it should never be is a painful experience.**

**_I want to return. Do what you want. I won't just lie down and take it anymore. You will take me back, and I'm going to like it._**

**Girl, I must say, this has been an interesting fight, even while you were not aware you were fighting it. Alright, I'll give you your second chance. I hope that we won't have to meet again under the same circumstances. Here is your spirit…you must find your own strength, however…good luck, Konami Izumi.**

**CHAPTER 18: Resume**

_So…this is what I have to face…is this a curse? Why do I have this…pain? Why do I have to keep being followed by my worst possible fear? What did I do…_

_Well, well. You know what you did._

Kagami could barely force her impossibly heavy head to move to a position where she could see in front of her.

Even though the room was almost pitch-black except for a few orange glowing spots on the walls, she could clearly see an apparition…at least that's what she saw it as. It wasn't physical…it wasn't even real, but she had forgotten that a few days ago. It would seem that solitary confinement can dig up many forgotten and supposedly defeated demons that were locked away…in Kagami's case, she had only one, and her already fragile state had weakened her to the point of insanity…she was almost not even Kagami anymore, but just a hollow shell that answered to that name. The only thing tethering her to fragments of sanity was a short blue-haired joker...a girl whom she had known for nearly her entire life. A girl whom she had decided to give her life to, and sometimes that was very literal.

The only problem was that she hadn't seen this girl…or so much as heard another human voice or seen another living human for a number of days. She didn't have a way to keep track…but she assumed that it was days. For all she knew it could have been weeks.

_So are you ready to listen to me? _Her apparition said as it came close to her and caressed her cheek, leaving a slight glow that only Kagami saw. _I was starting to get lonely, Kagami…are you okay? It looks like you're crying…_

And she was. She wasn't sobbing…in fact, she had a stone-cold face showing no emotion at this moment…but there were hot tears flowing out of her eyes, and down her face. She could hear the pitter-patter of her emotion as it left her and dripped onto the metal floor. She would have reflexively wiped them away, but her hands were being held back by magnetic restraints that reminded her of Raven Rock…

At that thought, she fell forward, her arm restraints the only thing stopping her from collapsing to the floor. Her face was now twisted into a grimace of pain as she remembered one of the defining moments in her life…something she thought she held dear and close violently stolen by Colonel Kuroi…her legs shuddered as she tried to push the memory away, and finally she was able to trade it for a new one.

But not necessarily a better one. She thought of looking over the control panel of the huge Enclave base, The Crawler, where she lived a few months of her life actually living and _working _with the Enclave_…_of course, she had no intention of really helping them. Her job there was to establish a connection between the unfired American atomic warheads and their satellite controllers. She succeeded in that at least…and she also managed to covertly aim the warheads at the Brotherhood of Steel stronghold the Citadel, and the Enclave Crawler which she was stationed on. Then suddenly the Crawler was attacked before she could finish the job, and she frantically checked and made last-minute adjustments until she was finally content and pressed the button, just before the Brotherhood of Steel attackers could stop her.

She sat back in the chair, knowing she had also sent her sister off to die a minute earlier at the hands of some deathclaws, waiting for the warheads to drop on the Crawler and end her miserable existence.

The lights shut off except the red warning beacon telling her to evacuate. She quickly pulled out her laser pistol, aiming it at the doorway where she saw a figure. They both hesitated for a moment, then the silhouette attacked her, neither knowing the other's identity. They each almost managed to kill each other when they each realized who the other was. Konata and Kagami…Kagami was sure that Konata was dead…she instantly damned herself. The first blinker went off on the console, signaling the first bomb's impact. Kagami had killed an innumerable amount of allies…in an instant…and the second warhead was thirty minutes away from destroying her and Konata.

They exited onto the flight deck and waited…this was the first time they had gotten a chance to say the three binding words, even though they had had the words in their heads for too long. Kagami practically jumped onto Konata, and all of her feelings, worries, sorrows, and many other things spilled out in her first and seemingly final physical display of love for the girl.

They were beginning to do something they should have a long time ago when a Brotherhood of Steel vertibird landed on the flight deck, cutting it short and leaving Kagami with barely enough time to get her shirt back on.

Now back in her cell…somewhere in Arizona…where she was tortured by silence…with only herself for company…

She began to laugh. Kagami laughed harder than she ever had as a child, or since then. She laughed until her body was writhing in its bondage, and her tears switched from emotional pain to something instinctual. She laughed because of Konata. She laughed because she thought of all of the times she had fallen hard, and the girl was there to pick her up. Once, she had literally hit Konata. Kagami did it because she was suffering from many addictions, an infinite amount of stress, and her own volatile feelings. Although she hit Konata, this girl still loved Kagami with a fierce passion, because she knew. She realized all of the afflictions Kagami had, and she took the consequences on herself. Konata and Kagami…Kagami and Konata.

At that moment, Kagami decided that she would try. She would actually try to turn things back and live normally again. And she let herself be happy for the first time in almost ten years.

After about five minutes of almost violent bellowing, she stopped and looked straight ahead, into the eyes of her madness. She smiled. A genuine smile. She smiled at her last fragment of sanity, and it smiled back. It got so close to her that she felt like she could feel it. It may have been nothing but a centimeter from her face when it whispered.

_You won._

It stepped back and changed. The thing shrunk a few inches, and it slowly began looking like the only thing in her entire existence that had ever brought her happiness. The little blue-haired woman. Kagami continued smiling and the apparition came just as close as before, except now Kagami had to look down on it.

_I knew you could do it. I almost lost hope when you drank that whiskey, but now I can see that you were stronger than you let yourself realize. Don't think that you've seen the last of me…but I think that you can pass your tests without me from here on out for a while, Kagami. Good luck._

Kagami's eyes widened a bit, and then the thing got on its tiptoes and Kagami bent her head down, thinking she actually felt something…some kind of feedback, or pressure, but when she blinked all that was in front of her was the same monochrome room, and nothing else. Not even an afterglow where she thought she saw Konata a moment before. She knew that that spirit was nothing but a physical model for her pain…and she also realized that it changed into Konata for a reason. She didn't know why, but she thought that it still meant something positive.

Since it was impossible to get comfortable in her current state with her arms spread-eagle and her feet barely touching the ground, she just looked down at herself. _At least this branch of the Enclave has more decency than the one in the Capitol wastes…they left my clothes on this time…_She thought as she brought her head back up. She would get out, and when she did, she would have Konata with her.

A technician sitting behind a console looked up through the tinted wall and saw Kagami's entire breakdown. To him, it seemed a bit less violent than yesterday's, but it was still pretty intense. He noticed that she seemed to calm a bit near the end, though.

He turned and addressed the woman standing beside him.

"Alright, I think she's a bit calmer now, Commander Miyakawa. You might be able to get something out of her now." He said as he began typing on the terminal, bringing up Kagami's vitals and seeing a relatively normal wavelength. The woman turned away and left the room, walking down a lit hallway to the door labeled "Holding Cell B".

_Alright, Kagami Hiiragi, I hope you're ready to answer for what you've done. All that you've done…You will not get out of this installation alive…_The woman thought as she adjusted her eyepatch and waited as the door groaned and creaked, collapsing in on itself and leaving her an opening to get in.

_Good luck, Kagami. You're going to need it._


	10. Act 10 Pt 1

**A/N: Alright, a quick note from me before this starts.**

**I just wanted to say thanks for sticking with me this far, and dealing with the delays and dark spots…there will be many more, but at least this chapter is (partly) here now. I didn't really decide to make this one so long, but it just kinda happened. Fitting though, because 10 chapters is quite the milestone. Anyway, I said I'd make it short, so short the intro will be. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you stick around till the end, however far away it is. I'm not sure whether we've passed the halfway point, or if this is halfway, or it's still far away. In any case, just keep being my support. I couldn't do this without my reviews and feedback. Thank you.**

** Well here it is, without further delay,**

**ACT 10 Pt. 1: CHAPTER 19: Covert? Pshh.**

_Okay, Konami…apparently…you get a break. Now…it's time to set things straight…Can I open my eyes? Am I alive…am I real anymore?_

_Snap out of it…I was offered a second chance…and I'm going to take it. Come on…get up girl! GET UP!_

Konami had no idea where she was, when she was, or how she was going to find out all of those things face down on the ground. She couldn't bring herself to make a noise, or do so much as open her eyes…she wasn't sure whether or not she could really do anything. What happened to her doesn't happen to everyone. As she was lying there, she remembered something from before…that Powder Ganger that let her pass. He saw something in her…some strength…was he even a criminal? Could she be sure? None of the convict she knew would go around letting young women go past them for not dying when they were supposed to…she had so many questions…so many goals…they all seemed almost unreachable…and then she had a flash in her mind.

"…"

She tried to move her arm.

"…!"

She managed to get her left arm up to a position that would give her better leverage to lift her body.

"…G…e…t…u…p…"

After that was done, Konami pushed her right arm under her body and got to a drunken pose that she feared wouldn't last.

"Get up now!"

She yelled as she got to her knees and almost collapsed again from the exhaustion of that once simple act mixed with the screaming throb coming from both arms and her side.

The girl sighed and bent her head down, nearing the ground, but her eyes opened halfway, revealing the ground immediately in front of her. The place was perfectly dark, so either it was night again or the lights were off…either way she knew that she couldn't let herself fall again, because if she did…she knew she wouldn't get up again. Some now distant words whispered in her mind.

"_You must find your own strength…_"

They now seemed so foreign…alien…almost unreal…but she knew they were true…and she would obey them.

Konami growled and almost screamed as loud as her body would let her as she got to one knee and used it to push her up to her feet. She shook her head slowly, as she was unsure on her legs, almost falling over when she tried to move. She stopped, clenching her fists and opening them to the ground, doing the same with her eyes. After taking a deep breath and wincing, she took a step forward.

And then another.

And another after that.

Soon she remembered that she didn't have to be in the dark. She tapped a button on her Pip-Boy and the device blinked once, then lit up the area in a meter-wide radius…she quickly found that she was somewhere she hadn't been before…and the room she was in was actually pretty small. In fact, she was close to slamming into the wall…that would have killed her motivation…

Konami chuckled at the thought and turned to her left. She had woken up on the ground beside a bed for two. She could have rolled off it, or not been on it in the first place...

She quickly ditched that thought in favor of more important ones…first of all, where was she? She put her right hand on her hip and followed it with her eyes. Something bothered her…like something was missing…

After a quick look around, she saw a dresser to her right, a broken door with rubble blocking it to her back, the bed to her left, and the wall not even a foot in front of her. She sighed and used the wall to help her walk around the corner to her left, passing a stove and other things beside the bed. Quickly but cautiously she made her way around the corner to find a long desk with a strange looking robot on it. She promptly whipped out her laser pistol, but soon found that she didn't need it; the robot was deactivated.

At that she let out a breath of relief and returned the gun to its holster, leaning on the desk, still a safe distance from the robot.

"Well…I guess it's just you and me then…" She said, addressing the machine. "Maybe I should see what's wrong to pass the time." She finished as she returned the gun to its holster, hobbling over to the robot.

It was a design that she had never seen before…it was strange. It didn't have any appendages for walking or crawling, and it didn't seem to have the capability to fly. The only thing she could really call an appendage was the energy weapon mounted on the top and what looked like a speaker on the bottom. The thing was big and spherical, with a diameter of about a foot and a half. She guessed it was heavy, and she didn't want to risk hurting herself any more trying to lift it. There was a grille or grate on the front, and a large number of antennae and nodes on the top, bottom, and sides. Another thing she noted about its appearance was the amount of sustained damage and obvious jury-rigging, as there were a couple of license plates wrapped around its shell, not to mention the other bits of metal tacked to it as armor, although they may have been…souvenirs?

"Jeez…this thing is so beat up I'm surprised it was able to hold together this long…" She mused as she got the grate open to look at the electronics inside. It was almost as bad in there as it was on the outside…its electronics were all practically fried, and some things would need manual repairing. As soon as she opened it up she realized she would need other supplies to even start to work on it.

"Oh…I guess it's morning or something after all…" She whispered to herself as she saw a bit of light peeking through a crack in the door across from the desk. She looked from the bot to the door and decided to see where she was.

Konami almost opened the door when she realized what was missing. The foot-long bar that had been deep in her side the last time she was awake was gone, and her side and shoulder were bandaged, although the wounds looked like they were covered up quickly, and her "new" bandages were red with blood. _At least it's them and not the floor…_She thought melancholically as she continued to the door and exited the building.

The sudden barrage of light hurt her eyes, and she would have thrown up her arm if it weren't for her body screaming for her not to. She settled for turning back and leaning on the wall until her eyes adjusted. When she figured she was ready, she tried again, and the first thing that caught her eye was a sign with the words "Vikki and Vance" in large letters on the side of what she guessed was the Vikki and Vance casino in front of her. _So, I'm in Primm. Not a bad place for me to be right now, I guess._ She thought as she walked across the old road in front of her, minding her injuries.

Soon enough she made it to the building, and when she opened the doors she was greeted by the older NCR soldier from before and Ringo, who practically tackled her, taking the blame for her injuries and pretty much everything else. She gave him a warning glance that meant she was volatile, and he understood well enough, letting her go and stepping out of her way. She moved forward into the casino and Ringo and the soldier fell into step.

It didn't take long to find Johnson Nash, and he greeted her, looking her up and down.

"Well…it's good seeing you here all bright like that. You were damn near dead when Ringo and the soldier carried you in. I'm not much of a doctor, but I got the spike out of you and laid you down in the office across the street there. How are you feeling?" He asked.

Konami crossed her arms and leaned on a slot machine by them. "You want what I think, or the truth?" She counter-asked.

Nash rubbed his head and looked at her. "Oh, whichever'll do you good, girl." He responded.

She looked him in the eye and looked forward. "Alright. I feel like shit…look like shit…and all I want is a gunfight to finish this out and get back the only family I have left in this part of the world. Any questions?"

"Heh heh...you sound pretty determined for a corpse. Maybe you should get some real medical help before you go on your quest? If you do, I'll help you some in the other corner." He responded.

Konami shook her head and stretched her neck. "Nah…I can do all of the repairs myself, just give me the doctor's toolbox and I can handle it…*cough*…I picked up a few things over the years. It'll probably hurt like hell, but it'll be better having the satisfaction of sewing up my own guts rather than trek however many miles out of my way and dying in the desert. Oh, did you happen to look into the biggest hole here and see anything that needed special service?" She finished, pointing at where the steel rod used to be.

"No, it looked like the metal thing pushed all of your guts out of the way when it came in. You are a lucky girl, I hope you know that." Nash said.

Konami nodded and got off of the slots, shambling past Nash and putting her hand on his shoulder. "Good, good…so can you get the stuff for me? I expect you to fill up the bag with nothing but Med-X, now." She said, jokingly, despite her state.

**A/N: Med X is a drug similar to morphine in the Fallout universe.**

Nash waved her hand away and pointed to the back of the casino with his thumb. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Just get on back there and I'll get your stuff ready."

She smirked and stumbled down the stairs behind the main attraction of the casino, the Vikki and Vance car. She would have stopped, but she wasn't in the mood or state to sightsee. She walked to the back room where the lighting was better and sat on one of the couches.

**A/N: Vikki and Vance were like the Bonny and Clyde of the Fallout universe.**

Soon enough, Nash brought the supplies she needed, and her face fell and grew cold once she fully realized her situation. She nodded and took the bag. "Hope you don't mind getting the place a little dirty, Nash." She said as she opened it and pulled out a small knife, some gauze, a needle and thread, and a syringe of Med-X, just to help her along.

He shook his head and left the room, taking a couple locals who were hanging around with him.

Konami looked up at Ringo and the NCR soldier. "I might need you to help me with some of this." She said.

Ringo and the soldier nodded in agreement, and she took off the outer leather layer of her clothing, followed by the near useless cloth layer, keeping her underclothes on (for obvious reasons). Soon enough she decided to sit on the floor rather than the couch, and crossed her legs, now removing the bandage from her side.

She was tempted to take the Med-X and stab the spot with the needle, but that would defeat the purpose of having it…she just gritted her teeth and tried to stay strong.

She told the men what to do if she blacked out during the process, because she was sure she would, and they successfully completed the procedure together. Konami woke up a few hours after the surgery, and found herself on the couch with half of Primm gathered around her. She sat up, stronger than she had been for a long time, and stood up, with a determined smile on her face. After a quip from the townies, she redressed.

Nash provided her and her team with as much equipment as the town could muster, which wasn't much, but it was enough for what she needed to do. She ended up with about six Primm residents following her, along with Ringo, the NCR soldier, and another NCR woman she picked up on her way back through the camp.

She had gotten directions to the NCR Correctional Facility, where she was sure Mariko was being kept, with two goals. One, to get her sister back. Two, to find a new lawman for Primm.

They came up over a final ridge as the dusk fell, and finally the huge base was laid out in front of them.

"Does anyone have any long-range weapons here?" She whispered to the group.

Two men raised their hands and one held up a varmint rifle with a scope while the other produced a service rifle with a longer range sight pattern. Konami positioned them on opposite sides of the ridge and told them to take out the snipers in the towers when the shooting started. Konami signaled for the rest of the group to follow her and she made a small leap off of a ledge, rolling on the ground but quickly getting to her feet as the others followed, matching her speed. They charged the chain-link fence that surrounded the once protective and reassuring prison that suddenly shifted from one type to another when Konami heard a scream from within.

She threw open the large gate with Ringo's help, allowing the others to storm the fenced hallway leading to the door of the main building. Once Konami was done with the gate, she pushed to the front of the group and fired the first shot, burning away the face of the lone guard. Konami stole his key and tossed it to a guy on the door. He unlocked it and pushed it in, rolling and shooting at the guards stationed inside.

Konami was thinking of pushing him out of the way and going in first, but when his bullet-ridden body flew out of the room, she realized it wasn't a good idea. "We're sitting bloatflies here! We need to do something about this…" She yelled as a woman in her group fell, dead before she hit the ground. _Think…think…wait, these are Powder Gangers…they should have dynamite on them…_She thought as she bent down and searched the remains of the man she had shot a few moments before. She retrieved two sticks of dynamite from his body.

She carefully held one of the explosives in her hand, searching for the old lighter and finding it. _Damn…last time I tried this…oh well, I have to do something! _She reasoned as she flipped the lock of life or death open and held the fuse of the key to life or death over it.

"Everyone, get down." She said in a voice loud enough for her group to hear but too quiet for the Gangers to make out…she hoped. Either way, it was too late, and the fuse dipped into the flame, sparking and igniting the end to one group, the other, or both. She hoped it was the other and tossed the dynamite into the large room, the explosive fulfilling its purpose quickly.

The building shuddered but stood, and though the Powder Gangers were not all dealt with, the men who weren't destroyed were dazed. Konami yelled and led the charge in. She put up her laser pistol and pulled out her combat knife, catching a deafened Ganger off guard and opening him up.

Everything turned to confusion as she twisted around and ran to the next man, doing the same to him. For a moment she stopped and looked down at herself, seeing her body covered in blood…only a little of it hers. She felt her side wound tearing and bleeding a little along with every breath she took, but soon she felt her body heat up and she forgot her pain, letting it be replaced by her maelstrom of emotions. After clearing the room of convicts, Konami ran down another hall and out a door to the large courtyard inside the fence. She wiped some blood out of her eyes and looked around, trying to find the place where her sister was being kept. She turned to the right and saw a few Powder Gangers outside, all of them fixated on the door. One man attempted to chop at her with a meat cleaver, but she fell to the ground and he missed, quickly having her knife show him what he looked like on the inside. He fell, dying, and she once again wiped blood out of her eyes.

There were still at least three in the courtyard, and they were unsure what to do. They stood still a moment too long though, as Konami was on them in an instant, attacking with such ferocity and abandon they were wondering whether or not she was human…but that was the last thing any of them thought.

After she dealt with the men, she made for cell block A, hoping Mariko was in there somewhere. She heard a scream earlier, but it could have been someone else, far away…

No. She was here. And she was okay. Konami wouldn't let herself think otherwise. She kicked in the wooden door and easily caught the only Ganger in the place off guard, leaving him against a wall. She searched all of the building and came up short. She guessed that this was the barracks since there were only bunk beds filling the already cramped rooms.

_Okay, so Mariko is in cell block B._ She concluded as she left this waste of time and met up with the rest of her team outside in the courtyard. It had been midday when they set out, and the night was quickly approaching. Konami turned on her Pip-Boy light for extra visibility and instructed a couple of guys to get the door. When they checked the inside, there was a strange feeling in the front room…like something had happened but no one noticed…either that or there was nobody left _to_ notice.

Whatever the circumstance, Konami walked past the two men at the door and looked at the bloodstained knife that had seen more on this day than it ever had before it came to her. She held this piece of cold metal close as she opened the door slowly and silently, only giving herself a moment to slip inside, then closing it in the same way. This block also seemed to have a lone guard on duty, and he was at the far end of the room. Konami knew that something was off as soon as she stepped in, because there was one clue to Mariko being here…heavy breathing, coming from the end of the room. The guard put his hand on his gun and said something to someone out of sight…Konami didn't much care what he said, because just for laying eyes on his sister, he would be beyond dead. She hid in the doorframe leading to the large central room and waited until she could feel the man's footsteps. She wanted him to see her clearly before he gave up his existence. She stepped out and twirled the knife around, grabbing the hilt upside down and rushing him.

All he had a chance to see was a flash of blue one second before he felt light the next. He fell into the wall and grabbed at his chest, unable to form words because half of his jaw was gone. In another second his brain gave up and his body collapsed into the ground.

Adding a bit more blood to the mix didn't faze Konami as she stepped over his body, getting some directly from his exposed heart on her legs. She heard a gasp and a hit. After that she walked slowly towards the back room, swaying with every step. Another step and she heard and exclamation from a male mouth and a pained moan from a female one. Konami didn't change her pace, but her eyes formed half-moons and her mouth was pursed into a small line. Soon enough, she got to the doorway and stopped, feeling rather than seeing a man charge at her. She stepped out of the way and he tripped, falling to the ground and trying to scuttle away from her, only to get backed up into a corner. At that moment, he felt a deeper sense of fear than he thought possible as he saw Konami's blank face. He knew he was dead before she plunged the knife into his neck.

Konami stood up and looked up at the ceiling, feeling the crimson river flow over and off her. She just now realized that the room was actually almost perfectly dark, and she still managed to massacre a couple Gangers. No thoughts went through her head as she slowly walked into the room which would decide her fate.

Mariko perked up a bit when she heard the men talking about a maniac killer in Primm…she knew who they were talking about. The only times she could will herself to move was when she had to use the exposed toilet at the back of her cell and when there was a whisper of food. She'd eaten much less than she normally would the past couple of days, which was okay seeing as how she didn't eat or drink for two straight days when she first arrived, but she was still tired and pained. She had overheard the Powder Gangers' plans for her and she didn't like it at all…they said that they were going to sell her as a slave to the Legion for a few Arieus, whatever that meant…she didn't like the word "slave" though. A Legion representative came by the day before her confinement ended and "examined" her. He wanted to make sure she was unspoiled by the Powder Gangers, but some of the things he did, she figured he might as well have dragged her back to the Legion right then where it wasn't being seen by drooling convicts. Mariko was pretty sure nothing else could really go wrong…she was beaten by the Gangers when she turned her head wrong, and they drilled her with pointless questions she couldn't understand…on top of that the Legion rep. did whatever the hell he wanted while he was there…her only option for escape was the large supply of Psycho the Powder Gangers had. She had gathered enough doses to put out a bighorner for good and was ready to use them when someone came into the building…she wasn't listening to her guards' idle chatter at this point, and she just heard a small squeak that wouldn't have been noticed otherwise.

She looked up for a moment and saw one of the guards turn to leave. That was good for her…one less audience member…but she also heard what sounded like a butcher cutting up a steak. Apparently the other man heard it too.

Mariko tried to speak up but he hit her, told her to stay quiet, then got up and ran out before slipping on some blood and falling on his ass. Mariko whimpered as she saw a mystery person jump on him and…well…she guessed that at least a third of his blood was out of his body within the first few seconds.

Her savior stood up, and she was…she didn't know how to feel when she saw who it was. The body shape and hair looked like her sister's…but the face…Konami's face was terrifying to her. Mariko dragged herself over to the mattress on the floor where she slept during her days here and curled up on it. She was too weak to start crying, but she would have otherwise.

As Konami stepped into the room, she looked at Mariko's ragged and bruised body and her face fell. She felt like she couldn't do anything, even though that was what she had come so far to do. She just stood there, and eventually Mariko began to shudder and shake, her body being wracked by silent and dry sobs. A drop of sweat, blood, a tear, or a combination of the three ran down Konami's face as she tried to approach Mariko a number of times, stopping herself for some reason each time. She slid down the wall and put her head between her knees, wrapping up her legs in her arms. She didn't feel anything that she could identify, but she wanted so badly to. Did she do this to herself? Did she let everything pile up until the pressure released and broke her? Was she broken?

Mariko pulled herself together after a few minutes and inched towards her sister, being very careful. When what felt like an eternity had passed, she put her head on Konami's shoulder, then turned and tried to lift her sister's head and look at her, even though she knew she would be afraid of what she saw. Finally, Konami looked up at Mariko and they locked eyes. Konami's had leveled out, and they were glinting and twitching. Mariko had already used her tears long ago, so hers were simply hollow spheres used for taking in data for the brain to process.

No words passed between them as Mariko simply moved between Konami's legs and nestled up under her chin, despite the sickening squelching noise Konami's clothes made due to all of the blood. Now they were both there…just there. Not much else could be explained using words. Konami then let what she knew was a tear roll out of her eye to fall on Mariko's head. The feeling Mariko got from the tear was enough to tap her supply, and she began sobbing again, this time clutching Konami's arm and letting her hot and dreary emotion leak out onto Konami. Eventually Konami gave in, and they were once again crying in each other's arms…they had found a while ago that this was the safest place for both of them…just together…and now they had found each other again. Konami and Mariko. Mariko and Konami.

Ringo rounded up the remains of the team and set up guards at certain places around the facility. He also sent a messenger to give word to the NCR that their facility was ready to be returned, and he stretched. After a few minutes, he went into cell block B and saw just what Konami was capable of now…he was afraid, and he had every right to be. About that time, he saw Konami come out of the back room, practically sobbing and carrying a weeping Mariko in her arms.

"So…what's next?" She asked Ringo as she came face to face with him, her eyes also scaring him…after all of this bloodshed…all of this stress…she would never be the same. But at least she finally had what she was looking for…and with that came hope. A hope Ringo hoped could carry over to the others…a hope he hoped would be there to stay.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: My apologies for the long wait. My life has been taking barrel rolls for a couple weeks, so I never really felt like doing anything, much less writing. This isn't my best work either, but it's something, and I wanted to get it to you guys…can't leave the story hanging, you know?**

**ACT 10 Pt. 2: CHAPTER 20: The Search Is On**

Another awakening, in another place and another time. Now the man was sitting up, holding his stomach and wishing he had at least an ounce more of common sense. After he mangled his self-confidence, he disregarded the nodes and sticky things attaching him to a beeping monitor and tore them out and off, causing the screen to burst into green then flatline. That endless tone was a bit disheartening to him…soon enough he shrugged and walked over to the table where his things were folded…neatly! He whipped his duster off the table and buckled his trusty sword to his side, taking another step and suddenly remembering the reason he was in a hospital bed in the first place. He keeled over as he grabbed at his burning and tingling stomach, remembering how that bitch tried to use his body as a sheathe for her knife…various rumbling thoughts tore across his mind and he forgot the pain and the physical disadvantage and touched a button beside the door with his fist, causing it to shift and fall away like they normally do…he never really got used to the screeching noise they made.

As the door fell away, he had another realization…at this point pretty much everyone in the installation would be against him…but he knew he could rely on Evans.

**_Evans walked out of the room once he was done giving the women a check-up. He had a small smile on his face that suddenly changed to a deeply worried grimace as he remembered something and hurried down the hall to C level. "Damn…why did it have to be today? Anizawa…he can help…he's the only man in this shithole that cares about innocents…" He mumbled to himself as he hustled down the stairwell leading to the lower levels. The medical offices are in the undercroft of A level, so he had a ways to go. He kicked up the speed when he saw a few elite guards on B level…many more than usual._**

**_He nearly fell on his face when he bypassed the stairwell further down and ran across a catwalk above the small plaza that made up the trade center in the installation. "Anizawa!" Evans called over the people as he grabbed the railing. "Anizawa!" The second shout caught someone's attention and he saw a familiar face come running from the holodisk recording and repurposing shop. Evans waved for him to come up quickly._**

**_"I'm sorry Anizawa…I lied to you a few days ago. I think…I think the commander has gone too far-" Evans began as Meito grabbed his arm._**

**_"What are you talking about…everything's fine this time, right?" Meito asked with a tone that Evans…didn't like the sound of._**

**_"Look, it's just that…well, the commander has been acting strange ever since we brought those people in and fixed them up. It's like…she's constantly watching me and the room, like she expects them to kill everyone or something. It's been freaking everyone out. Actually, a few guys have talked to me about it…they're tired of living like this…under her. Not just because of the newcomers. We're practically under the Legion's thumb as well…" _**

**_Meito spun him around and looked him in the eyes. "_****Evans. What's going on?****_" He asked with a fire sparking behind his eyes._**

**_Evans shook his head and looked away. "The collections are early this month…she wants the girls as her offering." He said, almost reluctantly, because he feared what would happen next. _**

**_"What the hell are you talking about?" Meito was not sure what to do when he heard that…he was aware of some strange things going on, but _****collections?**

**_Evans looked down and to the side. "I know more about this than I've told you…I'm sorry…I know you of all people deserve to have an opinion, but you're too well liked, and-"_**

**_Meito grabbed him and almost knocked some sense into him. "Evans, what do you mean about collections and offerings?" He asked, violently fidgeting._**

**_"Just…save them for me Meito…I would hate for all of this to be in vain…" Evans finished as his face went blank and Meito let the man go, realizing he wasn't saying anything else._**

**_Meito nodded and turned, heading for the stairs that he went up and down every day…treating them now as if they were stepping stones hovering over a pit of magma. When he looked down the hallway to C level, he saw soldiers running to go up the stairs at the other end of the hall…he knew he had to get to the destination first._**

**_Taking the steps by two, Meito kicked up his speed even more when he saw that there was a lack of militia members. Soldiers, civilians…everyone was suddenly gone. He bounded up the last flight and ran down the hall of A level, yelling when he saw a few of commander Miyakawa's soldiers inside Evan's office._**

**_"Daaaaaammmn iiiiiit!" Meito yelled as he ran into the room. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" He shouted as loud as he possibly could when he saw the state of things. "I mean…what the…why is…DAMN YOU!" He finished as he frantically tried to move in a number of directions but not going anywhere, looking at the blood on the walls and yelling at the still standing "Militia" soldier holding the women Meito pledged to protect...Meito gave him a look, and he dropped them to the ground and looked back at him, taking off his helmet. _**

**_"Heheh…you always were the stupid and 'courageous' one, Anizawa. Can't you let a couple of bitches you don't even know go away for your own good?" The man in the suit asked._**

**_Meito looked down to the ground for a second. A million volatile whispers ravaged his already unstable thought process and he could almost feel the chemical reaction causing anger to bubble up inside of him like molten rock from a fissure. "No. No, I can't Andrews. I won't give up these women. Especially not to you. I've seen this happen before and lived through it, but I distanced myself from the others. I tried not to care, but these…people…I've been through a lot with them, and I'm not going to just stand by while you-"_**

**_He was suddenly stopped by…a feeling he wasn't used to. Meito looked down and saw a combat knife buried in him up to the hilt. His body not sure what to do, he just made several sounds and stepped back, falling to one knee and quickly losing consciousness._**

Meito wasn't awake soon enough to see the doctor who patched him up, but he figured that the only man brave enough to do it would have been Evans. He shook his head and walked through the deserted halls of A level, not finding anyone…anywhere. He stepped back when he saw a trail of blood leading around a corner…

The noise the ancient door made when it opened assaulted Kagami's eardrums like knives…she hadn't heard any sounds for…days…except for the ones she made, which she thought were loud enough. That door…she knew that a sound that painful couldn't go with something good, so she prepared herself. She wasn't able to get too good a look at the figure that stepped in through the door, because it closed almost as soon as it opened, cutting the light away. All Kagami could tell was that they had long hair…could be a lot of people. The almost heavy darkness of the room didn't help either…but soon she heard the figure snap its fingers and white lights exploded in her face. The brightness was so intense that she thought her eyes would burn out of their sockets even though they were closed. She whimpered and tried to move her head away from them.

"So, Hiiragi, is it?" The mystery _woman _said...at least she could tell that much.

Kagami tried to speak, but no sound came from her mouth. She assumed it was because she hadn't had any water for days…or what seemed like days…she couldn't keep track like this.

She tried again, and managed a cracked, hoarse voice. "No…" She began.

"What? Don't tell me you're going to try to lie about your own name. I know the truth you little-"

"No, I was Hiiragi…I gave it up…I'm Izumi now…" Kagami sighed, lucky to manage those few words.

The woman was taken aback. Kagami could tell that from her tone of voice…the lights were still attacking her like rabid dogs, and that was with her eyes closed.

"Well…well…I, uh…Heh…heheh…I figured you two had a 'relationship', I just didn't know how deep. Haha…that's pretty funny…pitiful, too, that you would do that to yourself. You only live once, am I right? Slutty bitch…another reason for me to kill you." The woman said…Still laughing like a maniac at something Kagami thought was…well…not something to laugh about.

Kagami forced her eyes open. She focused on the woman and finally saw who she was. "Mi…Miyuki…? But you were there when we…when I got…" Kagami was getting more and more confused by the comment. Why would one of her best friends say something like that? And…kill her? What was going on…?

The woman's laughing tapered off and she looked at Kagami, grabbing her hair. "What? Miyuki? You've got the wrong girl…hah…'Miyuki'…No, close though. I'm the commander of this group of mercenaries. Remnants of the Enclave mostly. Anyway, I'm Miyakawa…though that's my last name. I'm not gracing you with my first, you whore. So, now what do we do…" She said as she dropped Kagami's hair and pushed her back, the restraints causing her arms to stretch painfully.

"You know, I was planning on killing you when you first came in here, because of that Anizawa freak. I've decided to sell you to the Legion, though. Too bad they don't like 'used merchandise' if you know what I mean. I guess that Kuroi messed you up pretty bad, huh? Yep. She was always strange…oh well. You could probably be Caesar's fanner or something."

Kagami shook her head and looked around…her eyes had gotten a little used to the lights in the place, but she was still dazed. She heard a different noise and snapped her head up to look at the commander.

"What is it? I'm in the middle of a meeting…" She asked…someone…as she put a hand to her ear. Soon, Kagami realized that the ring around her ear and face must have been for communication.

"Damn it…I'll be right there…Sorry I have to cut this short, but there's something I've got to tend to. Busy busy busy…" She said as she left the room, cutting the lights.

Kagami closed her eyes just to be in a darkness she was more familiar with. After a few seconds, she heard a sound that was new as well…she couldn't place it, so she wrote it off.

When he got to the corner, he was almost considering leaving it be…almost. He cautiously moved around and was greeted by the familiar sight of death, but this was something else. He turned back and put his head on the wall when he saw the two women laying there with their bodies badly mangled by what looked like a machete, or some sharp weapon of the sort. They also had a symbol painted on what was left of their stomachs…a symbol he was familiar with as well. It was the mark of the Legion.

He could do nothing for them at that point…he just knelt down and closed their eyes. Soon, he found himself running. He ran as fast as his body could take him. But he wasn't thinking like he was running away, he thought that he was running towards whoever did this…he would tear them apart with his bare hands if it came to that. He ran past Evans' destroyed clinic…the work it would take to fix that damage would take more than a few days. He ran past a dead Militia member…but Meito couldn't be sure if he was his own man or one of the commander's…guards? Or was the entire Militia lying?

Whatever the hell was going on, the least he would like to know was what flag he was under all of this time. Everything else aside, he knew that all of this blood showed that the Legion was behind it…which was bad news for everyone in here with a gun or without one._ How did I survive this? _He thought as he ran down the stairs past B level.

When the realization hit him he ran faster. Those women he saved…he fed straight to the jaws of Hell. Lately, people had been disappearing around the base…usually nobodies, people who weren't well known before, and not missed after leaving. They were usually either young women or able-bodied men however…never the weak or lazy. The Legion hadn't staged a single attack in months…until now. A month and a half after the last disappearance. The commander…was she…_giving_ people to the Legion?

When he passed C level, Meito pulled out his sword…if there was going to be a fight, it would be here. He walked through the halls, the women he let get taken the first thing in his mind…his weakness and ignorance caused them to get put down here…and for what? He saw some fully-armored Militia soldiers run by at the end of the hall and took a gamble, catching up with them.

"What the hell is going on?!" He asked one of the troopers at the back of the group.

"What the- Anizawa? What…I thought you were dead!" He said as they rounded another corner.

Meito found himself smiling, finding comrades. "Me too, for a while. Now, answer me, what happened here while I was out of it?" He demanded.

The soldier pointed ahead with his gun. "We're going to deal with a few Legionaries that got in through a tunnel…a fucking back door, can you imagine that? They were almost to the reactors when we found them out. I think there are six or seven in all…tough bastards…" He said as they got to the end of the hallway and opened a large door leading deeper in.

"Well where did those meat sacks go…I'm ready to turn this around!" Meito almost yelled.

The soldier shook his head and slowed down. "They…they went to get what they came for in the first place. Did you see what they did in the upper levels? They know our base better than we do! They came in down here first, and while we scrambled for the reactor ruse, they assaulted the damned front door. Killed a lot of non-combatants…I'm sure you saw." He began, shaking his head.

"But that's not all…there are passageways in this base that they used that even the captain of the guard didn't know about. How do you explain that, man? They came out and attacked us from holes in the wall! If it weren't for my armor, I would be nothing but a piece of meat on the chopper." He finished, nearing their destination.

Meito cleared his throat and tapped the man on the shoulder. "Where are they now?"

"I told you…I think all of them are near the commander's little group of rooms, you know? They went there to get even." He answered as the group stopped and took up positions around the entrance to a hallway.

Meito nodded and walked up the middle, causing a couple of the soldiers who hadn't noticed him before to gasp and then nod at each other. With this machine with them, they could do anything, almost. Even though he was hardly ranked in the Militia, everyone knew that Meito was a wild fighter. The only reason he wasn't ranked was _because_ of his recklessness. Now, however, rank lost its value. He told the troops to take up better positions inside the hallway and support him. They listened and stood clear, watching him.

He hovered his hand over his sword as he ran down the middle and checked every door. Finally, he found one at the end of the hall that responded to his touch and he nudged the button with his fist, waiting for it to cooperate and open up. After a few seconds, it screeched at him and folded into the wall. He told the group to go down the hall past him and take out any Legionaries they saw…it was going to be a fight.

After the men had moved on, Meito walked into the room he opened up before and thought his eyes betrayed him. He saw not one, but two figures stuck up on the wall like almost like living trophies…just the thought sickened him and he shook his head.

He heard a squeak and jerked his head around, seeing the silhouette of the farther figure stir. He walked to the wall, dreading the possibilities…he knew now that these people had no chance in here, caged and strung up. When he got there he got down to one knee and looked up at a face he recognized. The girl's lilac hair fell over her eyes, but Meito could tell that it was the smaller of the twin girls he had saved so long ago. He laughed and hugged her tight, causing her to squeak again and weakly fidget. Meito was unsure of her condition, but it didn't matter. He released the restraints on her arms and picked her up in his. He didn't recognize the other woman strung up on the opposite wall, but she was bloody and battered…he sat Tsukasa back against the wall and checked this prisoner's vitals. He got nothing. His face fell for a moment, but he looked up smiling, with something unthinkable raging through his mind. He carried Tsukasa out and handed her off to the soldier lingering outside. The man gladly took her, standing guard at the end of the hallway. When he looked back, he almost fell down from surprise when Meito violently grabbed his sword and swung it to his side, flames exploding on the blade and the floor. He yelled and ran headfirst around the corner, leaving the man stunned.

Meito tore around the corner and saw his men holding their own against the Legionaries. With his blood turned molten and volatile, his only thoughts were on destroying the Legionaries. He ran through the hallway and swung his sword around him in a spiral motion. The blood of the troops unlucky enough to get caught in the attack sprayed out freely and boiled, burning from the overcharged blade. They fell, and he whipped around, seeing two remaining. Meito smiled and pulled his hat down, laughing and shutting off the flames of his blade, sprinting and thrusting it into the side of one of the Legionaries, whose eyes widened behind his helmet. He tried desperately to hit Meito's back, but the pain did nothing but strengthen him. Soon, the flames burst up and coursed through the enemy, cooking him from the inside out. He never had a chance to scream as he fell, steaming. Meito twirled his sword and looked up at the last Legionnaire, who stood up to him and pulled out a machete half the size of Meito's blade. Nothing passed between them except the flames of hatred. The space separating them was quickly closed as Meito dashed forward, swinging his sword just as the flames activated, sending burning sticky liquid onto the unlucky man. He grunted, trying to put out the flames but only spreading them. Meito gave him a few moments to realize his quickly coming death and finished him the same way as the other trooper, his blood coating Meito's clothes and dotting his face. After the hall was cleared, Meito saw a room that he thought could hold another one of his friends…or maybe more than one. His blood still boiling, he walked to the door titled "Holding Cell D" and wiped some of the Legion blood off of the controls. He pushed the button and put away his sword. No thoughts passed through his mind as the door opened smoothly for once, with blood saturating the gears. Once light got into the pitch dark room, Meito saw an unfamiliar figure strung up at the back of the room.

He almost walked in when the woman looked up, her eyes widening when she saw him. Meito stopped for a moment and took a step forward, but a scream pierced his ears and he staggered out. The loud shrieking continued for a little less than a minute before tapering off. The soldiers who came with him gathered at the door, looking into the room.

Meito heard a high pitched noise that sounded like a silent scream…he guessed she used up her voice on that last outburst. These rooms were apparently soundproof. Had she been and screaming like that for longer? In a place like this, when kept completely isolated with only the sounds of the machinery keeping you company…he wouldn't be surprised if her brain was completely fried…

He tried desperately to calm himself down and he took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead. He decided to go in after a few minutes, carefully walking towards the woman. He _guessed_ that she was a woman from the scream, but she was definitely on the far end of the living spectrum…she was wearing a jumpsuit, so he couldn't immediately tell if she was hurt other than her face, where it looked like she had been smacked around by someone with power armor or something similar. There was also a dark mark on the side of her face, running from her ear to her mouth…it looked like some sort of burn to him. Meito soon realized through the long black hair and eyes who he had found. He was looking at Hiyori Tamura, but he feared that she wasn't all there.

She looked at him weakly, with eyes that may or may not even be seeing him. After standing there observing her for a minute or two, he decided that she was done fighting. Whether or not that was a good thing was up for debate. He carefully hit the button to remove her restraints and grabbed her before she could fall. Even though she was a bit bigger than Tsukasa, she was much lighter, which worried him. He easily grabbed her up into his arms and carried her back through the hallways, stepping over the remains of the Legion soldiers, turning the corner and walking to the man he left to guard the entrance.

"You got another?" He asked, upon seeing Hiyori.

Meito nodded and put her beside Tsukasa. "Yeah, and you can expect two more!" Meito called, already around the corner before the man could respond. _That crazy guy…I hope he doesn't get himself killed…ah, what am I thinking, he'll be the one doing the killing tonight._ He thought as he sat down beside the two women, getting as comfortable as his armor would let him.

Returning to the rest of his force of three men and a woman, Meito checked his supply of fuel for the sword and turned to the troops. "How are you on supplies and ammo?" He asked, finding his almost drained.

All of them gave him a thumbs-up and unloaded their guns, loading them again to make sure they had a full magazine of ammo in preparation for the final fight in the base.

Meito nodded and turned to the door at the end of the hall, looking at the sign above it. "Cells C-A and Control/Maintenance. Well…I don't know what we'll find back here, but whoever's waiting for us isn't going to let us get out alive if we lose, I can tell you all that much. So then…let's make sure that we can turn our backs on this place with our spirits and bodies intact!" He said, raising his fist and turning back to them. They all nodded and turned to each other, saying words of encouragement and pumping their fists. "Alright. Let's go people!" He said with a smile as he tapped the button to open the door.


End file.
